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HISTOEY OF BERLIN 

CONNECTICUT 



BY y 

CATHARINE M. NORTH 



REARRANGED AND EDITED WITH FOREWORD 



BY 



ADOLPH BURNETT BENSON, Ph.D. 

INSTRUCTOR IN 
SHEFFIELD SCIENTIFIC SCHOOL OF YALE UNIVERSITY 



NEW HAVEN 

The Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylob Company 

1916 






Copyright, 1916 

BY 

Elizabeth W. North 



/ 

NOV 21 reiB 

©GIA446548 



TO 

THE MANY DEAR BERLIN FRIENDS, 

WHO WERE SO FAITHFUL IN THEIR FRIENDSHIP, 

SO WARM, LOVING, AND TRUE IN THEIR AFFECTION, 

THIS BOOK IS GRATEFULLY DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOr's SISTER, 

ELIZABETH W. NORTH 



FOEEWORD 

Catharine Melinda N'orth, daughter of Deacon Alfred Korth 
and Mar J Olive Wilcox, was born March 1, 1840, and, with the 
exception of one year in girlhood, spent her whole life in Berlin, 
Conn. She was educated in the Curtis School in Hartford, 
studied in the Boston Conservatory, and taught music for a long 
time in her home town. "Following the example of her father, 
whom she so greatly loved and reverenced, she lived his 
daily prayer, 'filling up each day with duty and usef idness.' " 
She interested herself in every good cause, and especially in the 
work of the Second Congregational Church of Berlin of which 
she was a member. In the Sunday school, both as pupil and 
teacher ; in the missionary work of the church ; and more par- 
ticularly in the church music, her cooperation was of the 
utmost importance. At one time she assisted the choir with her 
truly cultivated and musical contralto voice, and then for years, 
she led, as organist, the worship of the church. During the 
declining years of her father. Miss l^orth assisted him in his 
duties as town clerk, and after his death she gave up her music 
and continued as agent for the fire insurance companies which 
he had represented. Her historical work falls in the last quar- 
ter of her life, and her notes seem to show that she was working 
on the history of East Berlin and Beckley Quarter, paying 
considerable attention to the Bowers family, when a stroke of 
apoplexy ended her work, July 8, 1914. 

Miss Worth was a director in the Berlin Library Association 
and a member of the Emma Hart Willard chapter of the 
Daughters of the American Revolution. While organist of the 
Berlin church, she turned over the remuneration she received 
to the Library Association to be used as a fund. One of her 
former pupils characterized her as a "truly educated" woman, 
"fond of study," and whose influence was to teach others. In 
her research work, she often sat up until the "dawn o' day," 



VI HISTORY OF BEELIN 

pondering on historical problems, and it is thought that this 
may have reduced her physical vitality enough to shorten her 
career. She possessed, also, a considerable knowledge of botany 
and had a "genuine love for a flower." An intimate friend has 
paid the following tribute to the memory of Catharine North : 

A long-time friend wishes to express her loving admiration of the 
character of Miss North, who recently entered into her heavenly rest. 
Her personality was strong, upright and most interesting; strong in 
the force of her mental gifts, and in her moral nature; upright in 
a most conscientious fidelity to all known duty; interesting because 
responsive to many interests. Her whole nature vibrated in many 
chords. Did one seek her for advice on any point, how quick she 
was with her helpfulness and spirit of service! Did one lead the 
talk to music, art, travel, history, genealogical research, or the 
deeper things of the spirit, how she brightened and enlarged the sub- 
ject by her own original ways of looking at it! Who could ever 
tire of such a companion? When one thinks of the physical pain 
endured for several years past with the most heroic fortitude, one 
can but rejoice at the thought of the freed spirit reaching its highest 
development where all is light and love. We who were her friends 
are grateful for the companionship of these years, and are glad to 
believe what has been wisely said, that "Christians never meet for 
the last time." 

sec 

Beblin, July 16, 1914. 

The following chapters contain all of Miss North's work on 
the history of Berlin which is available for printing. Most of 
the notes, as is well known, appeared in the Berlin News, from 
November 9, 1905, to October 3, 1907, and many readers 
expressed the desire at the time that the articles might some 
day be printed in portable form. In the present volume two 
distinct papers have been added : one on "Daniel Wilcox, Pio- 
neer Settler," which was read before a meeting of the D. A. R. 
of Berlin, and another on "The Dunbar Family," which was 
contributed by one of its members and was found among Miss 
North's correspondence. To my knowledge, neither one of 
these has ever appeared in print before. A few notes on Ser- 
geant Beckley have been compiled by the editor from Miss 
North's papers and added to the first chapter. 



rOREWOED Vll 

A strong revival of interest in the history of Berlin was pro- 
duced in September, 1905, when residents of the town decided to 
celebrate an Old Home Day. On this occasion, all interested 
were invited to participate, either in body or mind, and a small 
number, who were already engaged in some historical work on 
Berlin, accelerated their efforts, brought their material into 
tangible form, and presented it at this celebration, which took 
place in the Second Congregational Church of Berlin on the 
twentieth of the month. 

At least three letters and papers were read, either wholly or 
in part, on that memorable Wednesday evening: a letter by 
Mrs. Jane Porter Hart Dodd of Cincinnati, which gave some 
"delightful reminiscences of early Berlin" ; a paper by Miss 
Alice ISTorton on "Memories of Berlin's Earlier Schools;" and 
one by the Hon. Y. L. Wilcox on "A Glimpse into the Industrial 
Life of Some of the Early Families of Berlin." The first two 
of these were printed immediately in the Berlin News, on 
September 28t.h and ISTovember 2nd, respectively. A revised 
version of Mr. Wilcox's paper began to appear the following 
week, and formed the beginning of the series which Miss North 
continued and expanded until it had assumed its present pro- 
portions (see note, page 168). For a time, Miss jSTorth and 
Mr. Wilcox worked together on the task of revision, but in all 
collaboration — to use Mr. Wilcox's own words — Miss North was 
the "real historian." All indebtedness to Mr. Wilcox, who 
kindly placed his own manuscript at the editor's disposal, is 
here gratefully acknowledged. Many facts and suggestions on 
Berlin's early industries may be traced to his paper. 

Miss North was the historian of the Committee on Prepara- 
tions for Old Home Day. In an editorial in the Berlin News 
for September 28, 1905, we find this testimony: 

To Miss O. M. North, the News, and all who were connected with 
the committee, are much indebted for her part of the work in com- 
piling the great list of names, and in their arrangement for publica- 
tion. She was the historian of the committee, and her extended 
and accurate knowledge of the history of Berlin was a great 
assistance. 



Vlll HISTORY OF BERLIN 

An examination of Miss North's historical legacy, both pub- 
lished and unpublished, reveals a contribution to the history of 
Berlin of no little importance. Above all, it shows true his- 
torical sense ; that is, a conscientious research with an untiring 
effort to obtain historical truth. Any mistake in a published 
article (in the Berlin News) was always corrected and 
explained in a subsequent paper, and the last installment of the 
printed series, just before the publication of the Berlin Neius 
was discontinued, was devoted exclusively to corrections and 
additions. A study of Miss North's working tools or raw 
material discloses a surprisingly large variety and quantity of 
reliable sources. Records of interviews with the oldest residents 
in town; extracts from correspondence with former residents, 
who are no longer in Berlin ; innumerable newspaper clippings, 
describing more recent events; hand-made maps of sections of 
the town, as it existed a hundred years ago, giving roads, houses, 
and waterways ; and, finally, quotations from the official records 
of Farmington, Wethersfield, Hartford, Middletown, New 
Britain, and other places, connected in any way with the history 
of Berlin; all these are well represented among Catharine 
North's papers. Whenever necessary, of course, authorities 
outside of the state were consulted. 

A word about the literary method of the author. Her style 
was interesting, decidedly unique, and she frequently punctuated 
the more sober matters of fact with personal comments or his- 
torical anecdotes. With respect to the mechanism of dealing 
with the historical material, there seems to have been no well- 
defined plan. As the author herself expresses it in the opening 
sentence of the paper on Daniel Wilcox, she took "the liberty of 
going backward, or forward or sideways at — pleasure." In so 
far as there was a definite plan, it was geographical. Miss 
North went from house to house, from street to street, giving the 
history of both present and former residents. 

It has been one purpose of this compilation — and the wish 
of Miss North's friends — to preserve both the content and the 
style of the original. As far as possible, this has been done. 



FOREWORD IX 

The task of the editor, therefore, has, for the most part, been 
a mechanical one. There has been no re-writing in anj real 
sense; neither have any stylistic changes been made. It is 
hoped, however, that the numerous misprints of the original 
have been removed ; the titles of the chapters have, necessarily, 
been simplified ; and all errors corrected which Miss ISTorth her- 
self designated as such. The most important change has been 
made in the mechanical arrangement of the material. As far 
as convenient, all data about the same family have been brought 
together under one heading. The arrangement of the first 
chapters is meant to have a chronological import ; consequently, 
the earliest settlers of Berlin have been placed at the beginning 
to serve as an introduction to the rest. This rearrangement 
has necessitated a few textual changes at points of transition. 

Since several historical facts were treated but briefly in the 
original, and it has seemed impracticable and unnecessary to 
give each topic a separate heading, several different matters have 
sometimes been introduced into the same chapter. The reader 
in some cases, therefore, will be agreeably surprised and will find 
more than he expected from the title. Whenever this occurs, and 
there seems to be a break in the continuity of thought, the mind 
of the reader, as in the original articles, will easily be able to 
bridge the gap and adjust himself to digressions and abrupt 
transitions. It should be borne in mind, also, that most of the 
articles were written ten years ago, and that the "now" of the 
text refers to conditions as they existed at that time. 

A. B. B. 
Beblin, Conn., July, 1916. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Foreword v 

CHAPTER I. 

The Earliest Settlers of the Town. Jonathan Gilbert and 
His Family. Captain Andrew Belcher. Captain 
Seymour, Keeper of the Fort at Christian Lane. 
John Goodrich and Family. Sergeant Richard 
Beckley 1 

CHAPTER II. 

The i^orth Family; its Ancestors, Descendants, Indus- 
tries, and Neighbors. Simeon Korth, the First 
Official Pistol Maker in the United States 26 

CHAPTER III. 

The Hart Families of Lower Lane; Their Ancestors, 
Descendants, and Dwelling Places. Abby Pattison 
and Her Ancestor, Edward Pattison, the First Manu- 
facturer of Tin-ware in America. Emma Hart 
Willard and Her Work 55 

CHAPTER IV. 

Daniel Wilcox, Pioneer Settler of Savage Hill, ^N'orthwest 

Division of Middletown, and His Family 80 

CHAPTER V. 

The Porter Family. Edmund Kidder, the Centenarian. 

The Lee Family 103 



Xll TABLE OF CONTENTS 

CHAPTER VI. 

PAGE 

The Root Family. The "Lee House" and its Occupants 118 

CHAPTER VIL 
The Deming Family 131 

CHAPTER VIII. 
The Dunbar Family 144 

CHAPTER IX. 

Church History of Berlin. Early History of the "New 
Ecclesiastical Society." The Divisions of the So- 
ciety. History of Christian Lane Cemetery. The 
Reverend William Burnham and His Family. His- 
tory of South Cemetery. Incidents in the History of 
the Worthington Church. Deacon Amos Hosford . . 150 

CHAPTER X. 

The Early Industries of Berlin. The Houses of Berlin 

Street and Their Occupants 168 

CHAPTER XL 

Trout Streams of Berlin. The Peach Orchard 233 

CHAPTER XII. 

Belcher Brook and Its Industries ; the History of Risley's 
Mill, James Lamb's Stove Factory, and the Blair 
Factory 238 

CHAPTER XIIL 

Lower Lane. Isaac Norton and His Descendants. Nor- 
ton's Saw Mill. The Great Flood of 1797 248 



TABLE OF CONTENTS XIU 

CHxVPTER XIV. 

PAGE 

Disposal of Highway Property. The Building of the 
New Haven Railroad. The Train Wreck at Peat 
Swamp 258 

CHAPTER XV. 
Mount Lamentation 268 

CHAPTER XVI. 

The South District: The Roberts Farm; David Sage, 
Alfred Ward, and Their Children; the Stantack 
Road 280 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Benjamin Cheney, Pioneer Clock Manufacturer 288 



CHAPTER I. 

Tlie Earliest Settlers of the Town. — Jonathan Gilbert and 
His Family. — Captain Andrew Belcher. — Captain Seymour, 
Keeper of the Fort at Christian Lane. — John Goodrich and 
Family. — Sergeant Richard Beckley. 

One of the early settlers of Hartford was Jonathan Gilbert, 
ancestor of our Christian Lane family of that name. He mar- 
ried January 29, 1645, Mary, daughter of John White, preach- 
ing elder in Thomas Hooker's church. After her death in 1650 
he married, second, Mary, daughter of Hugh Wells. He had 
eleven children. He died December 10, 1682. Besides con- 
ducting a tavern and a warehouse in Hartford, Jonathan Gilbert 
was deputy collector of customs and marshal for the colony. 
He was also a member of Connecticut's first body of cavalry, 
fonned in 1658, under Major John Mason. 

For twenty-six years, from 1638 to 1665, the General Assem- 
bly of the Colony of Connecticut met twice a year, and with two 
exceptions, at Hartford. It consisted of two magistrates and 
three deputies from each town. 

Dr. Horatio Gridley, in his manuscript history of Berlin, says 
that for a long time their sessions were held in a chamber of 
Mr. Gilbert's inn, where the members boarded. 

In April, 1665, at the last session, before the Connecticut and 
!N'ew Haven Colonies united, there were six magistrates and 
twenty-five deputies present. 

For his services, the General Court convened at Hartford, 
August 28, 1661, granted him a tract of three hundred and 
fifty acres of land, with the privilege of choosing it, "provided 
it be not prejudicial where he finds it to any plantation that now 
is or hereafter may be settled." 

Gilbert's official duties had called him occasionally over the 
"principal path," leading to New Haven, so that he knew about 
1 



-a HISTORY OF BEELIiq^ 

the rich meadows in the valley now traversed in Berlin bj the 
!N"ew York, ]^ew Haven & Hartford railroad, and it was here 
that he took up his grant. By other grants and by purchase he 
added to his possessions until in 1672 his title deeds covered a 
landed estate of more than a thousand acres. 

The tract included Christian Lane and extended south to the 
present bounds of Meriden. 

Captain Andrew Belcher, born January 1, 1647, was a rich 
merchant of Boston. 

Professor David N. Camp tells us that he was engaged in 
trade with the Connecticut and ISTew Haven colonies, that he 
owned several vessels employed in transportation and was the 
agent of Connecticut in purchasing "armes and ammunition" 
for the colony and was also employed by Massachusetts to carry 
provisions from Connecticut to Boston for the supply of the 
the army and the Massachusetts colony. That 

He married July 1st, 1670, Sarah, daughter of Jonathan. Gilbert, 
and had seven children, two sons and five daughters. 

His youngest son, Jonathan, born in 1681, graduated at Harvard 
College in 1699, and soon after visited Europe, where he made the 
acquaintance of the princess Sophia (Dorothea, wife of King George 
I) and her son, afterward George II. He was governor of Massa- 
chusetts and New Hampshire from 1730 to 1741, and afterwards 
governor of New Jersey. He was instrumental in enlarging the 
Charter of Princeton College, of which he was patron and benefactor. 

His son Jonathan, grandson of Captain Andrew Belcher, graduated 
at Harvard College, studied law in London, and was Lieutenant- 
Governor and Chief Jtistice of Nova Scotia. 

Sir Edward Belcher, a grandson of the preceding, was a com- 
mander in the British navy, commanding the expedition which was 
in search of Sir John Franklin in 1852-54. 

"When on business at Hartford, Captain Belcher was in the 
habit of staying at the Gilbert tavern and here he found his wife, 
Sarah Gilbert. 

Soon after his marriage he purchased of his father-in-law the 
greater part of his farm. 

One of the deeds, as confirmed by court, reads in part as 
follows : 



THE EARLIEST SETTLEKS 8 

Att a Genall Assembly holden at Newhaven October the 14 1703, 

Whereas, the Govenr and company of this her Magesties Colonic 
of Connecticutt in Genall court assembled at Hartford, Aug. the 
28th, 1661, did give and grant unto Jonathan Gilbert of the said town 
of Hartford, inn holder, deed, three hundred and fifty acres of 
countrey land for a farm, 

and whereas, the said Genall Assembly holden at Hartford, March 
the 13th, 166i, and Octobr the 12th, 1665, did give and grant to 
Capt. Daniel Gierke of the town of Windzor three hundred acres of 
land for the same use, 

to be taken up partly upon the branches of Mattabessett River, 
and partly upon the road from Wethersfield to Newhaven, at or near 
a place called Cold Spring on the west side of a ridge of mountainous 
land commonly called or known by the name of the Lamentation 
Hills, 

all which appears on record ; and the said Jonathan Gilbert did 
purchase of the said Daniel Gierke his said grant, by which grant 
and purchase the said Jonath Gilbert obteined to himself and his 
heirs a good and lawfull right and title to sixe hundred and fiftie 
acres of the said countrey land, 

four hundred and seventy acres whereof was laid out to the said 
Jonathan Gilbert ... at and nere the said place called the Cold 
Spring on the west side of the said Lamentation Hill; the said four 
hundred and seventie acres of land comprehending within it three 
pieces of meadowe, one called the south meadow, another the north 
meadow, and the third beaver meadow; and the said Jonathan Gil- 
bert having purchased the native right of the said land, and of the 
land thereunto adjoining, amounting in the whole to the sume of 
one thousand acres and upwards of meadow and upland ; 

and whereas Capt. Andrew Belcher of the town of Boston in the 
province of the Massachusetts Bay in Newengland, merchant, hath 
by purchase gained to himselfe and his heirs forever all the estate, 
right and title that the heirs or assignes of the said Jonathan Gilbert 
had or might have in, or to the said four hundred and seventie acres 
of land, meadow and upland . . . This assembly considering 
that the said Andrew Beldrer hath expended a considerable estate 
upon the said land in building tennantable houses and settling 
tennants therein, 

and other improvements which are like to be a public as well as 
a private benefitt, the said tennements being conveniently situate for 
the relief of travailers in their journeying from place to place, 

for his incouragement to goe forward with his improvements doe 
see cause to grant his petition . . . provided always, neverthe- 



4 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

less, that there shall be a country road or highway through the said 
farme or part thereof, as there shall be occasion. 

At the same session of the court Captain John Hamlin peti- 
tioned for another grant of land for Captain Belcher : 

Which land lyeth between sd Mr. Belcher's farme at Meriden and 
the mountain called Lamentation. 

Captain Thomas Hart and Mr. Caleb Stanley jun, "were ordered 
to survey the tract and report both as to quantitie and qualitie." 

At the next meeting of the General Assembly the committee 
reported. 

We found that the said land petitioned for aforesaid doth contain 
about two hundred and eightie acres: 

And as to the qualitie thereof by reason that the same is almost 
wholly consisting of steep rocky hills and very stony land we judge 
it to be very mean and of little value. 

As early as 1664 this locality, as far north as 'New Britain, 
was known as "Merrideem." 

Jonathan Gilbert's deed from Daniel Clark, dated April 22, 
1664, is still in the possession of his Christian Lane descendants. 
It describes the 300 acres of land conveyed as "lying, situate, 
and laid out at a place called Moridam, where Mr. Jonathan 
Gilbert's farm is and bounded partly on the Mattabesick River 
where it may be allowed of the town of Farmington." 

Later the whole of the present town of Berlin was known as 
"Great Swamp." 

When the Misses Churchill were planning to come to Berlin 
to live, they were told in New Haven that there was a "great 
swamp" up here. 

In 1660, when Charles II ascended the throne of England, all 
who had presided as judges, when the death warrant of his 
father, Charles I, was signed^ were in danger of losing their 
heads. Ten of the regicides, as they were called, were executed. 
To escape the same fate, three of the guilty men fled to Kew 
England. 

At first the "judges" were treated as distinguished guests, but 
when King Charles sent officers across the water for their arrest, 



THE EARLIEST SETTLERS i> 

it was dangerous for minister, magistrate or commoner to 
befriend the fugitives. It is to be hoped, however, that those, 
who assisted them, will not be held accountable in the day of 
judgment, for all the lies they told the officers. 

The regicides fled from one hiding place to another, as they 
were pursued. In 1661 they were secreted in a cave at West 
Rock, ISTew Haven, since known as "Judges" cave. 

Mr. Richard Sperry who lived about a mile west of the 
"Rock" used to leave food for them on a certain stump, where 
the men would go for it under cover of darkness. The mountain 
was full of wolves and wild cats and one night, when a panther 
appeared at the mouth of the cave, its blazing eyeballs and 
unearthly screams frightened them so that they abandoned that 
retreat. 

The tradition is that in their wanderings they encamped, for 
several days, by the side of a river near what is now called West 
Meriden. The stream is still known as "Harbor Brook." 
Daniel Clark, secretary and clerk of the court, mentions "Pil- 
groomes Harbour," by which name the locality was known for 
more than a hundred years. 

Mr. F. H. Cogswell of 'New Haven has written a very inter- 
esting story entitled "The Regicides." The book may be found 
in our public library. 

Wallingford, set off from Xew Haven, was first settled in 
1670. 

Hartford and l^ew Haven had then been settled about thirty- 
five years, and a road which had been made between the two 
towns was mentioned, in the deed of this land to Wallingford, 
as the "Old Road." It was the identical road now kno^^^l as 
"Old Colony," as it runs through West Meriden. 

The court confirmed the grant for the new village, provided 
it "doe not extend to the north any further than wh(ere) the old 
road to !N'ew Haven goeth over Pilgrimes Harbour." 

Edward Higby was the first settler in AVestfield Society 
(Middletown). His deed, given October 15, 1664, reads as 
follows : 



6 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

I Seavikeet, Indian, (abiding in or about Hartford, on Conec't,) 
Sachem, owner ... of a large tract of land in the woods toward 
New Haven att and about the land now in possession of Mr. 
Jonathan Gilbert, . . . doe sell unto Edward Higbey, one parcell 
of land . . . Hills, rocks, brooks, swamps, and all other appur- 
tenances bounded ... by marked trees, and by land of sayd 
Jonathan Gilbert and Pilgrim's Harbor Brook or River. 

Another deed given in 1681, received for record at Hartford 
August 10, 1684, reads: 

. . . that I, Adam Puit, Indian, now residing at Podunk, 
(Windsor) doe hereby mortgage all my land lyeing upon the Road 
toward New Haven, . . . next adjoining to Jonathan Gilbert's 
farme, ... in breadth North and South five miles, . . . 
with all the swamps, Rivers and meadow Land lyeing within the 
said Bounds ... to John Talcott of Hartford . . . 

Adam Puit received in hand from the said "John Talcut" one 
parcel of "Trucking Cloaths" and stipulated that before the end 
of the year he should "receive foure coats more, as full satisfac- 
tion for the purchase thereof." 

The next year, 1683, Mr. Talcott made over all this land to 
Wallingford, and so, while the original northern boundary of 
Wallingford was Pilgrim's Harbor, by this purchase in 1682, it 
was extended to the present south line of Berlin. When we hear 
that our Berlin grand sires married their wives down in Wal- 
lingford, we need not necessarily think that they went so very 
far away from home. 



Some of our village people trace their ancestors to Ensign 
!N^athaniel Royce of Wallingford, who received three separate 
grants of land at Dog's Misery, described as lying by the 
southern branch of Pilgrim's Harbor (brook) that being the 
name of the whole stream from its mouth up to the pond whence 
it flows. 

In 1700, the daughter of IN'athaniel Royce received, as her 
portion, three and a half acres at Dog's Misery. It had acquired 
this name because a part of the land was a miry jungle, so over- 
grown with a tangle of thorns and bushes, that when wild ani- 



THE EARLIEST SETTLERS « 

mals sought refuge therein, and the dog'S followed, they stood no 
chance when their chase turned upon them, 

September 16, 1707, "The towne chose Eliezer Peck, Joshua 
Culver, David Hall, a commetie to see that (dogs) misery hiway 
may not be pinsht of the twenty rods in any place from the town 
to miserie whare it was not laid out before the graint was of sd 
hiway." 

Meriden was organized as a town in 1806, but the name was 
restricted to that territory from the time when, in 1725, the 
thirty-five families living at the nortli end of Wallingford, tired 
of going so far, over bad roads, to the center for their church 
privileges, formed themselves into a distinct Ecclesiastical 
Societv. 



When Captain Belcher received his grant, it was stipulated 
that he should build a fort with port holes, where he should keep 
arms and ammunition. This fort was built on the west side of 
the "old road," a mile and a half or so below the Norton farm, 
on what was afterwards known, for many years, as' the I^elson 
Merriam place. (One winter, when Mr. Reddington taught in 
the Worthington Academy, the Merriam children drove up here 
to school, a sleigh full of them, every day.) 

Mr. Perkins says the fort was built in 1664. Barber says it 
was erected between 1660 and 1667. Davis places the date 
between 1661 and 1667. Now if, as stated, Mr. Belcher was 
born in 1647, married 1670, and purchased his first tract of 
land, after that date, of his father-in-law, the deeds for which 
were confirmed 1673-4, is it probable that at the age of seventeen, 
or earlier, he was down in the Meriden woods, sixteen miles from 
anywhere, building a fort ? Ten years later there was use for 
the fort, with its arms and ammunition. 

Rumors were abroad that all the Indian tribes, in New Eng- 
land, were to unite in an effort to rid their country of the whites. 
King Philip, who hated the English, was going about, from 
chief to chief, stirring up their passions. He told them that 
unless they bestirred themselves they would be robbed of every 
foot of land that had come to them from their fathers ; that tliey 



8 HISTORY OF BEELIN 

would be crowded out from their hunting grounds ; their forests 
would be cut down, and their people would be scattered like the 
leaves of autumn. 

In 1675 the war broke out with fury, and brought desolation 
to many settlements, especially in Massachusetts. !N"o attack 
was made, on towns in Connecticut, but the settlers were in 
mortal fear, and many a stalwart soldier went out from his home 
to help fill the state's quota, who never returned. Supplies of 
food and clothing were sent to the army from every household. 
Taxes were enormous. Houses were fortified, and no man dared 
go to church, or into his field, or to set his foot outside his door, 
without a musket, with a pouch of bullets, and flask of powder, 
at his side. 

In 1678, when King Philip's War closed, six hundred men, 
of our forces, had been killed, and six hundred houses had been 
burned. Every eleventh family was homeless, and every elev- 
enth soldier had fallen by disease or the hand of the Red man. 
With his land, Mr. Belcher had permission to "keep tavern 
forever." He did not come himself, but sent some one to use- 
the privilege. It is said that the first house was of logs, with 
iron shutters, the doors driven full of great spikes. 

This building proved too small, and in 1690 a new, costly 
stone house was erected, so substantial, that it was still in use 
and famous in the times of the French and Revolutionary wars. 

John Yale had a farm of five hundred acres lying on both 
sides of the road, north of the Belcher tavern, and Deacon Yale 
used to tell about the times when travelers staid at the "Half 
Way House," as it was called. He said the men, sometimes 
twenty teamsters at a time, would put their horses under shelter, 
but they never thought of going to bed themselves — there were 
only two beds in the house. They fiddled, sang, danced and 
drank until morning, every man with his gun within reach. 
One-half of the company staid outside, on guard, the first hours 
of the night, and then the others took their turn. Pickets 
were stationed all about, and over on the mountain, to watch 
against surprise from the Indians. To get their drink, they 
looked the wagons over until they found a cask of liquor, when 



THE EARLIEST SETTLERS 9 

they knocked up a hoop, bored a hole with a gimlet, drew what 
they wanted, and then plugged the hole, and drove the hoop 
back in place. 

About the year 1845 the foundations of the old tavern were 
ploughed up by Mr. Sidney Merriam. The magazine, where the 
powder was stored, was northwest of the house, and the hollow 
where it stood may still be seen. The place is now owned by 
Michaels, the Meriden baker. 

ISTorth of the tavern was a blacksmith shop, the first in this 
• part of the country. 

We have spoken of an old stage road, now abandoned, that ran 
from Meriden up to Kensington. It is probable that Mr. 
Belcher laid out that road, at any rate he built a stone wall 
along its east side. This wall may be seen west of the railroad 
track, where it bounds the iN'orton farm, for about half a mile, 
and extends farther south into Meriden. It is four feet high, 
and four feet wide at its base. In places it has suffered from the 
hunters. It was once a great place for rabbits, and the dogs 
would stand with nose pointed at a hole, in the wall, until their 
masters came and tore away the stones to secure their prey. 

Edward Augustus Kendall in his history, published 1809, 
writes of this wall as follows : 

When the road between New Haven and Hartford was originally 
made, a Mr. Belcher, received a stipend from the government, on 
condition of his residing here, and keeping an inn, or, as it is called, 
a tavern. The Indians were at this time troublesome, and mention 
is made of a wall, built by Mr. Belcher, as if for purposes of defense. 

In this way however it could be of no use; for it was of more 
than a mile in circuit, and formed of uncemented stones, raised 
only four feet high, like the walls at present common in the country. 
This wall however, had some extraordinary personages among its 
builders. 

It is current in tradition, that fourteen or fifteen settlers came 
into Mr. Belcher's neighborhood, from the town of Farmington, of 
whom the whole band possessed unusual strength and stature. Two 
were of the name of Hart. Of these, one, whose son at the age 
of seventy years is still alive (1809), is said to have had bones so 
large, that an Indian, who, with others, was passing through the 
settlement, stopped and examined him with surprise. Mr. Hart and 
his fellow-giants were employed by Mr. Belcher on his wall. 



10 



HISTORY OF BERLIN" 



A stone south of Albert E'orton's barn marks the ancient 
southeast comer of Farmington. 

On the old Colony road, about twenty rods south of the point 
where the turnpike branches off toward East Meriden, a great 
oak tree, on the west side, marks the division between Hartford 
and 'Rew Haven counties, and also the town line between Berlin 
and Meriden. 

A barn about thirty rods south of the ISTorton house, sometimes 
used as a cider mill, used to stand on the north side of the hill, 
below Galpin's corner, where the foundations still remain. It 
was purchased before the Civil War and removed to its present 
location by Henry Korton. 

Ebenezer Gilbert, son of Jonathan, married Hester Allyn, 
daughter of Captain Thomas Allyn of Windsor and Abigail, his 
wife, who was a daughter of John Warham, first minister at 
Windsor. On the Warham side the Gilbert family claim rela- 
tionship with Rev. Jonathan Edwards, Aaron Burr, Timothy 
Dwight, Judge John Trumbull, General William Williams, 
signer of the Declaration of Independence, John Sherman, 
ex-President Woolsey, Rev. John Todd, Grace Greenwood, Rev. 
Horace Bushnell, Elizabeth Stewart Phelps, and others equally 
worthy of note. 

Hester's grandmother Allyn was Margaret Wyatt, whose 
ancestry has been traced back through Richard Plantagenet, 
King John of England, Henry II ; Matilda, daughter of 
William the Conqueror, and King Alfred the Great to Adam, 
seventy-six generations distant from Hester. What are you 
giving us ? Honor bright ! it says so in one of the genealogies, 
and to think the poor girl had to settle down in "this desolate 
corner of the wilderness" — a worse case than that of the 
Bolderos — but then her husband owned a farm of 300 acres, 
besides much other property, and he was the only "Mr." in the 
community excepting the minister. 

Ebenezer Gilbert was received to the Christian Lane church 
by letter from Hartford in 1718-19. At a meeting of the society 
held January 7, 1716, "Insign" Isaac I^orton was appointed to 
obtain a decent and fashionable "cushing" for the desk of our 



THE EARLIEST SETTLERS 



11 



meetinghouse. He seems not to have performed this duty, and 
at the annual meeting December 1, 1718, Mr. Ebenezer Gilbird 
was appointed to obtain a convenient "cushen" for our meeting- 
house desk. 

At a meeting of the Society held November 17, 1717, "Insign" 
Isaac IsTorton, Sergeant Benjamin Judd, and Mr. Ebenezer Gil- 
bird had been chosen a committee "to order the prudentials of a 
school in this Society and offer their advice about it at the next 
meeting." 

The committee reported December 1, 1718: 

This Society being so very scattering in distances & our ways so 
very difficult, for small children to pass to a general school in the 
Society great part of the year. We tlie Subscribers advice is, that 
this society be divided into 5 parts or "Squaddams," for the con- 
venient schooling of the children . . . That the first part or 
squaddam be all the Inhabitants south of the river called "betses," 
"Honhius or Honehas" river, including Middletown neighbors with 
them. And the Inhabitants in Wethersfield bounds be another part 
or squaddam. And that all from "betses" River to the River called 
Gilbirds, Northward, to be another part — & that from Gilberds River 
Northward, till it includes Dea Judd & John Woodruff be another 
part & that the rest of the society North be another part & further 
that the money allowed by the country be divided to each "squad- 
dam" according to the List of the Inhabitants within the limits 
thereof & the rest of the charges so arising shall be leaved on ye 
parents or Masters of ye children who are "taut." 

Ebenezer Gilbert died in 1726. By his will, dated July 17, 
of that year, he bequeathed £300, to his dear wife Ester, together 
with the improvement during her natural life of one-half of his 
Eastermost dwelling-house, within the bounds of Farmington. 
To his daughter Sarah he gives £200, and to his sons, Moses, 
Jonathan and Ebenezer, he "bequeathes all my housing and 
lands in Farmington, Hartford and Symsbury .... to 
be equally divided amongst them. Excepting my eldest son 
Moses shall have my said dwelling House in Farmington above 
& beyond his other Brothers parts." 

The estate inventoried £4455 19s. lid. of which "dear wife 
Ester" received £300, and half the dwelling-house! Included 
in the list of personal property were: a negro £100, a negro 



12 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

woman £45, boy £100, child £30, total £275. The widow 
Gilbert died October 4, 1750. One item among specific bequests 
made in her will reads "I give my grandson Thomas Gilbert 
mj son Moses son one Silver Spoon." The residue of her real 
and personal estate which inventoried £326 5s. lid., she divided 
equally among her sons Moses, Jonathan and Ebenezer. 

Moses Gilbert, baptized June 22, 1707, married Elizabeth 
Hooker. Their son Ebenezer, bom January 15, 1741-2, mar- 
ried May 27, 1762, Mary Butrick. She was at one time a 
member of the Worthington church, but their house was opposite 
the John Ellis place, a short distance over the Berlin line in 
'New Britain. Ebenezer Gilbert was killed in the Kevolution- 
ary army, February 15, 1776. Their son Sylvanus, born 
February 10, 1763, also died in the army. 

Widow Mary Gilbert married second, l^ovember 19, 1778, 
another Revolutionary soldier, Lieut. Elisha Booth, with whom 
she moved to Hartland. After the death of Lieutenant Booth 
she returned in 1800, to the old Gilbert place, where she died 
March 30, 1831, aged eighty-six. She was buried in New 
Britain, where it is probable that the graves of the two Gilbert 
soldiers may be found. 

Charles S. Ensign, counsellor at law, of ISTewton, Mass., a 
descendant of Seth Gilbert of Berlin, has in his possession the 
original 300-acre Gilbert deed. He is of the opinion that the 
red brick Gilbert house was built by Ebenezer about the year 
1709, and that it was the house willed by him to his son Moses, 
or possibly that it was one of the taverns which Jonathan Gilbert 
was allowed by General Assembly to maintain between Hartford 
and Wallingford. 

It is probable that the foundations are the same, but the pres- 
ent house was built by Hooker Gilbert, born June, 1751, son of 
Moses and Elizabeth (Hooker) Gilbert. 

The brick was made on the farm, southwesterly from the 
house, and "Gilbird's River" now washes around into the pit 
from which the clay was dug. Some of the bricks, used for 
ornament, are very hard and black. They shine to-day as if 
enamelled. The process by which they were made is lost. 



THE EARLIEST SETTLERS 13 

Without doubt those bricks were the first made in Berlin, and 
now the north part of the original Gilbert farm, and nearly all 
other farms in that region are full of clay pits, brickyards, kilns 
and Italians. 

Hooker Gilbert married first, Candace Sage, who died May 
15, 1805, aged fifty-one. He married second, Sarah Hooker. 
She died December 4, 1840, aged seventy-nine. He died two 
days later, December 6, 1840, aged eighty-nine. 

Moses Gilbert, 2d, bom March 17, 1793, son of Hooker 
Gilbert and Candace (Sage) his wife, married Renie Rebecca 
Steele. Her mother's name was Beccarena. Her father, Wil- 
liam Steele, a noted fifer in the War of the Revolution, died 
March 28, 1825, aged sixty-eight. 

A long indenture paper, dated August 17, 1839, shows that 
Moses Gilbert leased his farm on shares, for three years, from 
April 1, 1840, to Abner P. Welcome. Other papers show that 
he spent those years traveling in Virginia, selling clocks. 
Gilbert children of later generations remember that the garret 
of the old Gilbert house used to be full of clocks, which they 
were allowed to play with. 

A pocket-book contains many notes given for clocks long since 
outlawed. Mr. Gilbert bought, December 27, 1843, of William 
Leftwick a tract of land in Braxton County, Va., containing 
3,873 acres, which he paid for in bonds, horses, etc. As late as 
1865 he was trying to negotiate a sale of that land for $1,000, 
but it is said that it was sold for non-payment of taxes. When 
oil wells were discovered there an effort was made to redeem the 
property, but it was too late, and the Gilbert name does not 
appear in the list of "Oil Magnates." 

A curious recipe was found with Mr, Gilbert's Virginia 
papers. Outside it reads : 

Recpt for Curing Cansors. Jan. 18, 1831. tod by a mane frome 
Kentuckey & he had one & kured it By the same med son. 

Inside it goes on : 

January 8th, 1831. Recpt for Curing' Cansors: 
Take Six Galens of Strong lye & Bile it down to apint then 
takit of & stur it till it Becomes Cold then take the same quanetey 



14 HISTORY OF BEELIN 

of salt stur it to gether till it Becomes a Save then a plie two plars- 
ters twise in twenty fore ours & when the flesh Be Comies hard take 
a rasar & shave it of till it Becomes smooth with the other skin & 
when you think the Cansor Becomes ded then take the yelk of uneag 
& Beswax & rosum & muten talur & simer them to gether and make 
a save & a plie once more in twenty four ours till it dros it out 
& if the roots Brake of then a plie the pastur a gen till it kill it. 

Moses Gilbert, 2d, died August 30, 1882, aged eighty-nine. 
Renea Rebecca, his wife, died February 28, 1862, aged sixty- 
eight. 

They had seven children. The eldest son, Moses, 3d, mar- 
ried, in 1850, Lucelia Steele, daughter of Jeiferson Steele. He 
was a little man. The boys used to call him "Whiniky" Steele. 
He was a drvimmer in the State Militia, and was very proud 
when dressed in his regimentals. Mr. Bulkeley remembers 
attending in October, 1843, the last great general training at 
Hartford, when 5,200 men in arms assembled on the north 
meadows. Colonel Richard M. Johnson, the reputed slayer of 
Tecumseh, and ex-Vice President of the United States, 
reviewed the troops and as the parade passed through Main 
Street, little "Jef." Steele walked the whole distance, with his 
hand resting on Colonel Johnson's carriage. 

A small account book kept by Alfred Korth, 1830-1-2, 
recently discovered, throws light upon the occupation of Jef- 
ferson Steele. It appears that the young man, Alfred, traded 
off a flute for a watch, giving three dollars to boot. Immedi- 
ately began entries thus : 

Jeferson Steel Cr. 

By repairs upon my watch 75 

By do do 67 

By Watch Chrystal 20 

Do 16 

By cleaning Watch 50 

By cleaning do 50 

By mending mainspring to watch 20 

June 1832 Albert Hulbert Cr. 
By Bulls Eye Watch, price agreed 7 00 



THE EARLIEST SETTLERS 15 

The late William Gilbert, son of Moses, 2d, in company with 
his sons Edwin and Henry J., carried on an extensive business 
in market gardening. Henry J., who is a parpenter also, had a 
shop north of the brick house. The greenhouses were on the 
south side. 

Mrs. Frank Bailey, a daughter of Moses Gilbert, 3d, still lives 
at the north end of Christian Lane. Mrs. Lucy Gilbert, widow 
of Edwin, who died in 1901, lives, with her daughters Cora and 
Florence, in the new house next south of the brick house, and 
these are all who remain to represent the family on the tract of 
land granted to Jonathan Gilbert in 1661. 

Henry J. Gilbert was the last of the line to occupy the old 
homestead. The odor from the sewer beds, directly in front 
of the house, only seventy-five feet away, made it unbearable as 
a residence, and it was sold in January, 1906, to the city of 
New Britain. ISTow the place swarms with Italians, laborers 
from the brickyards — eight beds in the garret, they say. Henry 
Gilbert, when asked if he ever heard any Indian stories, said 
"'No, only this" : His grandfather Moses told him that one day, 
when ho had been at work in his field, he found, on his return, 
an Indian in the house. He said he took a horsewhip and drove 
him away. 

Thomas Gilbert, to whom his grandmother Hester willed one 
silver spoon, married a Mary North. They had a daughter 
Mary, born 1761, who was married to her cousin, Joseph Gilbert. 

These three inscriptions in the Christian Lane cemetery, read 
between the lines, tell a pathetic story: 

Joseph Gilbert died May 8th 1784 se 26. 

Miss Lydia only offspring of Mr. Joseph and Mrs. Mary Gilbert 
d Oct 4th 1802 aged 19 yrs & 10 mos. 

Mary wife of Mr. Joseph Gilbert died April 25th 1859 aged 98. 

Joseph Gilbert's estate was insolvent and his land had to be 
sold to pay the debts. Mary, his widow, went to work, bought 
more land, had a cow and chickens, and kept up heart, for had 
she not a child to love and rear ? Then "Miss Lydia" died and 
after that her mother, as they said, "took to cats." She owned 
a little house and barn over in the lots, northwest from the John 



16 HISTORY OF BEELIN 

Goodrich place, where she lived, with only her animals for com- 
pany. She had the Gilbert passion for land and added to her 
possessions until she owned forty-seven acres, or more, lying in 
sight of her home. 

Deacon l^orth carried his daughter there to see her one day. 
The house, as remembered, had three rooms. One on the south- 
east corner was used as a sort of entry way. West of that, the 
most comfortable room of the three was devoted to a lot of hens, 
right in the house. 

"Aunt Molly," as every one called her, lived and slept in a 
room which extended across the north side. On her bed was a 
cat nursing a litter of kittens. Toward the last it was thought 
unsafe for Aunt Molly to stay alone and she was carried over 
to the brick house to end her days. There, her work of nearly 
a century done, she used to sit before the great fireplace and 
smoke her clay pipe, and doze and dream. What interesting 
stories she might have told for this history. 

After Aunt Molly's eyesight failed, her greatest comfort was 
to repeat, from the Bible, chapter after chapter which she 
learned in childhood. One day when Doctor and Mrs. Brande- 
gee called to see her she recited for them the whole of one of the 
longest chapters in John. 

Jonathan Gilbert of Hartford, who by grant of General 
Assembly, in 1661, and by further purchases came into posses- 
sion of a tract of land extending from "Wethersfield bounds to 
Wallingford," died in 1682, aged 64. His estate inventoried 
£2484 17s. 09d. His will, dated September 10, 1674, reads as 
follows : 

I Jonathan Gilbert of Hartford do make ray last Will & Testament. 
I give to my wife Mary Gilbert the use of homestead and Dutch 
Island, Land I bought of Mr. Callsey, Land exchanged with James 
Richard, pasture I bought of Andrew Warner, also my wood lott 
on the west side of Rocky Hill, tiil my son Samuel attain to 21 
years of age, then to be surrendered to him, with certain reservations 
to her during life, then all these to Samuel and his heirs forever, 
he paying to his brother Ebenezer £30. I give to my son Jonathan 
Gilbert half the land at Haddam I bought of James Bates & Thomas 
Shaylor, or £20 in other estate, which is his portion with what he 



THE EARLIEST SETTLERS IT 

had before given him. I give to Thomas Gilbert my House & House 
lott on the south side of the Rivulet. I give to my son Nathaniel 
Gilbert my farme at Meriden and £30 more. I give to my daughter 
Lydia Richison 20 Shillings. I give to my daughter Sarah Belcher 
20 Shillings; to my daughter Hary Holden 20 Shillings; to my 
daughter Hester Gilbert £100; to Rachel Gilbert £100. 

I give to my son Ebenezer Gilbert, all that 300 acres of Land I 
bought of Capt. Daiiiel Clarke in Farmington, also that purchase 
of Land I bought of Massecup, commonly called and known by the 
name of pagonchaumischaug; also £50. I desire my wife do remem- 
ber Hannah Kelly & give her 20s, and more at her discretion if 
she prove obedient. I give to my grandchild, John Rossiter, £10; 
to my gT. child, Andrew Belcher, £5; to my gr. child, Jonathan 
Richeson £5. I make my wife sole Executrix, and desire Capt. 
John Allyn, my brother John Gilbert, and Sargt. Caleb Standly to 
be helpful to her, and that she satisfy them for their pains. 

Witness: John Talcott, 
John Gilbert, 
Jonathan Gilbert, L. S. 

Mary (Wells) Gilbert, widow of Jonathan, died July 3, 1700. 
In her will, dated May 23, 1700, she describes herself as "I, 

Mary Gilbert of the Town of Hartford widow and 

innholder." The "inn," which was kept by Jonathan Gilbert 
and his wife, as early as 1661, is said to have stood on or near 
the site now occupied by the Hartford Times. 

Gravestones to the memory of Jonathan Gilbert and Mary 
are in the Center churchyard at Hartford. Their eight chil- 
dren were Hester, Lydia, Rachel, Mary, iJ^athaniel, Ebenezer, 
Samuel and Sarah. 

^STathaniel Gilbert is not mentioned in his mother's will. He 
died unmarried at Meriden. 

There seems to have been some difficulty over the disposition 
of Mrs. Gilbert's wearing apparel. iN'ovember 14, 1701, nearly 
a year and a half after her death, Capt, Caleb Standly and 
Lydia, his wife, testified in court under oath : 

That we, being at divers times together with Mrs. Mary Gilbert 
in her last sickness, did hear her declare that it was her will that 
her two daughters that attended her in the time of her sickness, 
2 



18 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

viz., Lydia Chapman, and Rachel Marshfield, after her death, should 
have all her wearing clothes divided between, them, and that they 
should have them as they were appraised in the inventory, and be 
well paid for their attendance upon her. All which the sd. Mrs. 
Mary Gilbert declared to us. 

Richard Seymour, keeper of the Fort at Christian Lane, was 
slighted recently and we must return to speak of him. Captain 
"Seamer" was the leader of the company of families who came 
from Farmington in 1686 to settle on the farms this side of 
"Blow Mountain/' and he was granted by vote of the whole 
town the munificent sum of £1, as a gratuity for planting the 
new colony. It was a great shock to the little community when, 
in 1710, he was killed by the fall of a tree. There are many 
descendants of Richard Seymour Mdio may be interested to have 
an account of the administration of his estate, as entered in the 
Probate records at Hartford, here given in full : 

Seamore, Richard, Farmington, Invt £ 416-13-03 Taken 29 Novem- 
ber, 1710, by Thomas Seamore' Thomas Hart and Thomas Curtis. 

Court Record, Page 23-4 December 1710: Adms granted to Han- 
nah Seamore, widow, and Samuel Seamore, son of sd. deed. 

See File. 

An agreement by the children and widow of Richard Seamore for 
dist. of ye sd. estates vigt. 

To the widow, her thirds in the moveable estate and in lands; also 
a share in the lot called Bacholders, valued at £1-13-07. Bachelder 
was a Farmington name. 

To Samuel Seamore, half of the homested with ye house on it, 
valued at £60; also his part in the land that lies on the west of Mr. 
Gilbert, being 12 acres, and valued at £35-03-00. 

To Ebenezer Gilbert, land on the east side of Mr. Gilbei't valued 
at £18-01-03. 

To Hannah Seamore, out of the moveable estate, which is £32 10. 

To Mercy Seamore, her part in the dist. out of the raoveable estate, 

which is £32-10. 

Hannah (X) Seamore, LS 
Samuel Seamore, LS 
Jonathan Seamore, LS 
Ebenezer Seamore, LS 
Joseph Pomeroy, LS 
Mercy (X) Seamore, LS 



THE EARLIEST SETTLERS 19 

Page 24, 1st January 1710-11: Plannah Seamore of Farmington, 
widow, and Samuel Seamore, Jonathan Seamore and Ebenezer Sea- 
more, sons of the sd. deceased, and Mercy Seamore and Jonathan 
Pomeroy in behalf of Hannah his wife, daughters of sd. deed., 
appeared before this court and exhibited a writing under their hands 
and seals, made for the dist. or division of the greatest part of the 
estate of tlie sd. deed, amongst themselves. And each acloiowledged 
the sd. writing or agreement to be their act and deed. 
Wherefore this court allow and approve the sd. writing 
See Pile: Paper attached to agreement; November 7th, 1712. 
Then reckoned with and received of Samuel Seymour ye whole of 
ye legacy yt was due to m^' wife from Father Seymour's estate I 
say received in full 

Pr. Joseph Pumky 

Hannah Seymour was a daughter of Matthew Woodruff of 
Farmington. 

Hannah the widow did not long survive her husband. A 
statement recorded on page 193 of Early Connecticut Probate 
Records reads as follows: 

Seamore, Hannah, Farmington, late wife of Richard Seamore. 
Know all men by these presents : That we whose names are under- 
written do agree that for the third of our mother's state, deed, that 
the two sisters are to have all the moveables, and the three brothers 
are to have all the lands. 
Signed 7 November, 1712. 

Samuel Seamore, LS 
Richard Seamore, LS 
Jonathan Seamore, LS 
Joseph Pomeroy, LS 
George Hubbard, LS 

-nrr.^ J Ebenezer Gilbert 

Witness <^ ^ 

(Gersham Hollister 

George Hubbard was the husband of Marcy Sejonour, daugh- 
ter of Captain Richard. 

Richard SejTiiour, father of Captain Richard, came from 
Chelmsford, County Essex, England, in 1639. He was chimney 
viewer in Hartford in 1647, was in Norwalk with the early 
planters soon after 1650, and died 1655, leaving wife, Mercy, 
and four sons. Thomas, the eldest, remained in iSTorwalk, had 



20 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

three sons and seven daughters. The mother, Mercy, married, 
second, Mr. John Steele of Farmington, where she brought her 
three boys, John, Zachary and Eichard, who were under age and 
had been placed in her guardianship. 

As Richard was made a freeman in Farmington in 1669, the 
inference is that he was seven when his mother was left a 
widow, that he was forty-eight when he came to Great Swamp, 
and seventy-two at the time of his death. From Richard's 
brother John, who married Mary Watson, and settled in Hart- 
ford, were descended Governor Horatio Seymour of l^ew York, 
Judge Origen Seymour of Litchfield, Major Gen. Truman Sey- 
mour, U. S. A., and Rt. Rev. George F. Seymour of Springfield. 

Samuel Seymour, son of Captain Richard, inherited the home- 
stead. He married. May 10, 1706, Hannah ITorth, daughter of 
Thomas IsTorth, Sr., of Farmington. Their daughter Hannah 
was the second wife of Allyn Goodrich. John Goodrich, son 
of Allyn, with his son John — "Uncle John" — and Uncle John's 
children, made six generations who abode on that spot. 



Allyn Goodrich, son of John Goodrich and Rebecca Allyn his 
wife, of Wethersfield, born JSTovember 13, 1690, married Decem- 
ber 29, 1709, Elizabeth, the second of seventeen children of 
Colonel David Goodrich of Wethersfield. She was eighteen and 
he nineteen when married. They came to "Little Farmington 
Village," where she died August 25, 1726, one week after the 
birth of her sixth child. He married, second, December 10, 
1729, Hannah Seymour of Kensingt-on, and they had two sons, 
John and Asahel. At a society meeting held December 6, 1738, 
Allyn Goodrich was granted 7s. 6d. for framing a bier to carry 
the dead. He died April 8, 1764. 

John Goodrich, son of Allyn Goodrich and Hannah Seymour, 
born March 28, 1737, married April 7, 1757, Hannah Dewey, 
bom March 9, 1740, daughter of Lieut. Daniel Dewey, son of 
Daniel. 

The Deweys, who were active in the affairs of Great Swamp 
Society, lived within the present limits of ISJ'ew Britain, it is 



THE EARLIEST SETTLERS 31 

said on the Enoch Kelsey place, southeasterly from the Martin 
Ellis corner. Vermont claims Admiral Dewey as one of her 
sons. A branch of the Dewey family moved from Connecticut 
to Berlin, Vt, in 1789. 

Mrs. Orpha ITorth Edwards, born in Berlin, Conn., in 1810, 
now living at Derby, Coun., is a granddaughter of Hannah 
(Dewey) Goodrich. She writes that she remembers an uncle 
David Dewey, who lived in Vermont, and that "they" go back 
five generations to a common ancestor with the Admiral. 

John Goodrich and his wife lie in the Christian Lane ceme- 
tery. He died April 26, 1816, aged 79. She died September 
15, 1812, aged 72. Their six children were Seth, Zenas, Han- 
nah, Leonard, John, and Rebecca. Zenas married Lois, daugh- 
ter of Pete Gapin. He was a blacksmith and learned, it is said, 
his trade from his father. Hannah was the wife of Asahel 
Root, and Rebecca, mother of Mrs. Edwards, was the wife of 
Lemuel ISTorth. 

It was the fashion in early l!^ew England days to marry while 
young. John Goodrich was twenty-one and Hannah Dewey was 
only seventeen when she promised to "love, honor and obey" him. 

Their dwelling house stood a little way in front and north of 
the old fort. Mrs. Edwards says the house was built by her 
great-grandfather Goodrich. The outside doors were double 
and were fastened at the top and again at the base. A loaded 
gun hung on the wall. The logs for the gTcat fireplace were 
attached to a chain and dragged into the house by oxen. 

Mrs. Edwards remembers hearing that some Indians had a 
wigwam out in the cow pasture, west of the house, where they 
made baskets on a large white stone. She saw the stone when a 
child and thinks it must be there now, as it was so large that 
fifty men could not have moved it. Every two weeks the Indians 
carried their baskets to Hartford, where they sold them and 
bought rum. They had a "high old time" as long as the rum 
lasted, and the squaw used to come over and stay with Mrs. 
Edwards' grandmother until they were sober again. 

John Goodrich, Jr., born May 19, 1776, remained on the 
homestead. He married January 1, 1798, Ruth, daughter of 



22 HISTORY OF BERLIlNr 

Jonatlian Beckley of Beckley Quarter. Their children, six in 
number, were Darius, JS'athan, Lydia, Mary, Hannah, and 
Martha. 

"Uncle John Goodrich," as he was called, was a tinner by 
occupation, and his shop, where he busied himself to his last 
days, stood easterly from his house near the front fence. He 
was extremely fond of music. He was fifteen years old when, 
in 1791, the wonderful new organ was set up in the church, and 
he is said to have been tlie first to play it. He practiced at 
home on a painted key-board, and "made his own music," what- 
ever that might mean. 

John Goodrich, Jr., died May, 6, 1858, aged 82 ; Ruth Beck- 
ley, his wife, died January 16, 1849, aged Yl. 

Hannah Dewey, their daughter, born September 5, 1814, 
remained at home and cared faithfully for the old people as long 
as they lived. Afterward she was twice married, the second 
time to Aaron Dutton of Clairmont, N". H., where she died 
October 30, 1893. 

Mr. Goodrich and his daughter. Miss Hannah, were always 
present at church services. On a chilly May Sunday, in church, 
he took a cold that resulted in his last sickness, pneumonia. 
She was fond of little children, and was always trying to induce 
them to come to Sunday school. Miss Root remembers how 
they used to bring her over to the village on Sunday, sitting 
between them in a little chair, which they had in the wagon. 

The old Goodrich house was built early in the eighteenth 
century, probably by Allyn Goodrich. The style was like that 
of the Root house, at the south end of Christian Lane, except 
that the front rooms had only one window in front. It was set 
well back from the road, and great lilac bushes grew each side of 
the front door. The place was sold about 1870 to j^oah 
Rawlings, father of W. J. Rawlings, JSTew Britain's Chief of 
Police. The house had become so dilapidated as to be scarcely 
habitable, and Mr. Rawlings tore it down, much to the grief of 
Mrs. Dutton, who as long as she was able to do so, made a yearly 
pilgrimage to her old home, but after the new house was built 
she would never set her foot inside, except to go into the wood- 



THE EARLIEST SETTLERS 23 

house, which was all that remained of the ancient dwelling of her 
fathers. She always wanted to take away a bottle of water from 
the well, to use for bathing her head when it ached. Then 
she would get a boy to go down into the well and bring up for 
her a certain medicinal herb that grew on the stones. 

That well, now over two hundred years old, dug by the first 
settlers, a few feet outside of the fort, still affords excellent 
water. It is said that when the well was dug the earth was 
thrown out, for a depth of sixteen feet, by hand, without rope or 
windlass, and that it caved in and buried a man up to his neck. 



BECKLEY QUAETER AND THE BECKLEY MILL 

(Notes discovered among Miss North's papers) 

In October, 1668, The General Assembly at Hartford granted to 
Sergeant Richard Beckley "300 acres of land lying by Mattabesett 
half a milo wide on both sides of the River and to run up from 
New Haven path so far till it doth contain 300 acres."* In 1670, 
when the town of Wethersfield confirmed the grant, Mr. Beckley had 
already built a house and barn upon his farm. It is said that he 
lived here sixteen years before any other white person came. 

A business wagon may be seen daily passing through our streets, 
bearing the sign "Ed. Slater, Beckley Mills." For a time these 
mills were conducted by Giles London. The one on the east side 
of the road has been used for grinding plaster and fertilizers. 

Without doubt this water privilege was the first utilized in this 
vicinity. The old records at New Britain and Wethersfield show 
that the gi-ist mill changed hands many times, with few exceptions 

* This is undoubtedly the same piece of land which he is said to have 
purchased from the Indian Chief Tarramuggus, and the "grant" from 
the General Assembly at Hartford was merely an oflBcial confirmation of 
this purchase. Cf. the following: "Of the Indian Chief Tarramuggus he 
(Sergeant Beckley) purchased 300 acres of land lying on both sides of 
the Mattabesett river." See Emily S. Brandegee: The Early History of 
Berlin, Connecticut, an Historical Paper delivered before The Emma Hart 
Willard Chapter D. A. R., January 17, 1913 (printed privately), p. 1. 

Sergeant Beckley was really the first settler in Berlin and "came from 
New Haven to Beckley Quarter, which was then a part of Wethersfield, 
in 1660." As we have seen, however, he did not obtain an official title 
to his land as early as Jonathan CJilbert. 



24 HISTORY OF BEELIN 

passing from one member of the Beckley family to another. Four 
rooms on the southeast comer of the building were done off and 
plastered to be used by the miller and his family for a dwelling. 

In 1752 Benjamin Beckley deeded to John Beckley "1/5 part of a 
Grist-Mill situate(d) on Beckley River with 1/2 of said River." In 
1765 "1/4 part of one certain Grist Mill, known as Beckley Mill," 
in consideration of twenty pounds, was deeded by Daniel Andrews 
to David Webster, who conveyed the same to John Becldey the 
following year. 

The property was described as being in Wethersfield near the 
dwelling of Benjamin Beckley and the date was given as "April 
4th in the fifth year of our Sovereign Lord George the III and 6th 
King. Anno Domini 1765." 

John Beckley died in 1776, leaving two sons, Asahel and John, 
besides a wife, Ruth, who seems to have married again, as, in 1793, 
Asahel transferred 1/9 of the Mill to Theodore Beckley, reserving 
that part which was to come to him after the death of his mother 
"Widow Ruth Presley" who occupied it as dower right during her 
natural life. John, the brother of Asahel, also sold his right to 
Theodore Beckley. In 1810 Asahel sold for 28 dollars the right 
described as being "1/8 part of the Mill Place" to Jesse Hart and 
Elias Beckley, Jr. 

Nov. 13, 1806, the Selectmen of Berlin purchased from Oliver 
and Luman Beckley, Joseph Crofoot and Hannah, his wife, for the 
consideration of three pounds, sixteen shillings, the road leading to 
Beckley Mill, the same to be a highway forever. 

Up in Beckley, in the rear of Cyrus Webster's house, was a tannery. 
The tan bark was ground in a stone mill and the two stones that 
were used are now the front step stones of the house. A mill oppo- 
site Beckley Mill was used for grinding plaster and bone for ferti- 
lizer. Prior to 1844 Elijah Smith had a shoemaker's shop at the 
base of the hill where the elder Siebert now lives. At the site of 
Beckley station Mr. Beckley once made tinners' shears. Elias Beck- 
ley had a gun shop at the Lotan Porter place, northeast of his house, 
in the southwest corner, now the garden. He had also a blacksmith's 
shop. He built the house and made all the iron work, nails, latches, 
and hinges. 

One day a stranger came around the comer at the instant they 
were testing a new gun. He received the charge and was instantly 
killed. Down the hill toward the Grist Mill there was a cider mill. 
One day Rufus Goodrich of Rocky Hill came along and stopped 
to refresh himself with cider. He said he had sold himself to the 
devil, and he said there would be thousands at his funeral. As he 



THE EARLIEST SETTLERS 25 

went on his way, he invited all to be present. A few days afterward 
it was noticed that something was wrong in the bam of a neighbor. 
Swarms of flies were buzzing in and out. Investigation discovered 
the body of the poor man, wedged between two upright posts back 
of the hay-mow. 

The Grist Mill on Beckley farm is said to be the second oldest 
in the colony. Mr. William Bulkeley said that the first tinners' 
tools were made in Beckley Quarter. 



CHAPTER 11. 

The North Family, Its Ancestors, Descendants, Industries and 
Neighbors. — Simeon North, the First Official Pistol Maker in 
the United States. 

In the year 1G35, John Xortli* at the age of twenty, sailed 

from London in the Susan and Ellen and hmded at Boston. He 

* Since the death of Miss North, it has been established that John North 
was a descendant of Robert North, who is known to have lived in England 

in 1471; and since Catharine M. North is a direct descendant of John 
North of Colonial fame, we obtain an interesting genealogical line as 

follows : 

Ancestry of Miss Cathakine M. North 

(Contributed by Mrs. F. A. North) 

Born Died 
Robert North A. D. 1471 
Thomas North 

Roger North, Esq. Died 1495 
Roger North, Esq. ("A London citizen") 

Edward, 1st Lord North about 1496 1564 

Roger, 2nd Lord North 1530 1600 

Sir John North about 1551 1597 

Dudley, 3rd Lord North 1581 1666 

John North (America) 1615 1691 

Thomas 1649 1712 

Thomas, Jr 1673 1725 

Isaac 1703 1788 

Jedediah 1734 1816 

Simeon 1765 1852 

Reuben 1786 1853 

Alfred 1811 1894 

Catharine M 1840 1914 

The maternal ancestry of Miss North may be given here also: 

Born Died 

John Wilcox, Sr., came from England 1636 1651 

John Wilcox, 2nd, came from England 1636 1676 

Israel 1656 1689 

Samuel 1685 1727 

Daniel 1715 1789 

Samuel 1753 1832 

Richard 1780 1839 

Mary Olive Wilcox 1812 1882 

Catharine M. North 1840 1914 



THE NORTH FAMILY 27 

came to Famiin^'ton, where land was entered to him in 1G53. 
Ho was one of the eighty-four original proprietors among whom 
the unoccupied lands of the town were divided in 1672. His 
house-lot of three-quarters of an acre, purchased from John 
Steele, was near the north end of Farmington Street. It is now 
occupied by two houses, one recently owned by Sarah Shiels 
the other by Dorothy Palmer. 

John JSTorth and his wife Hannah, daughter of Thomas Bird 
of Farmington, were members of the Farmington church. She 
joined in 1656. Of their six sons, Thomas, born 1649, was a 
soldier in the Indian wars and received a grant of land for his 
services. His son Thomas, born 1673, was one of the pioneer 
settlers in Great Swamp, where he owned much land, possibly a 
part of the grant made to his father. 

By deed of date January 24, 1709, Thomas Xorth, son of 
Thomas, conveyed to William Bumham two parcels of land, one 
of eighteen acres, and one of twenty-two acres, described as 
being in Great Swamp. 

As shown by deed dated February 1, 1709, he sold land in 
Beech Swamp, Great Swamp, to Samuel Seamore, who had mar- 
ried his sister, Hannah North. 

When the church in Christian Lane was formed, Thomas 
Xorth was one of the "seven pillars," as the original members 
were called. He was described as a man of wealth and influ- 
ence, but strange to say we have failed to find his dwelling place. 
Records give it as Kensington or Farmington, but now we know 
that he lived near the Seymour stockade, and not far from the 
church. He married, December 1, 1698, Martha, daughter of 
Isaac Roys of Wallingford. 

It is estimated that their posterity number one-eighth of the 
Norths of this country. Their eight children were Martha, 
Isaac, Thomas, James, Sarah, Samuel, Joseph and Hannah. 

Thomas Xorth, Jr., died March 2, 1725, when his youngest 
child was three years old. James, who was ten when his father 
died, was the ancestor of the New Britain Norths. Further 
reference will be made to Isaac and his descendants when we 
come to the old houses where thev lived. 



28 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

Mart.ha, eldest child of Thomas N'orth, born June 30, 1700, 
was married August 6, 1719, to Daniel Becklej, grandson of 
Richard Beckley of Wethersfield, now Beckley Quarter. Their 
daughter, Martha, born October 27, 1720, was married August 
4, 1742, to John Savage of Middletown, now East Berlin. 
Their daughter, Huldah, born March 25, 1752, became, in 1779, 
the second wife of Josiah Wilcox, and they reared a large 
family of children in the house occupied by the late Sherman 
Wilcox. Their descendants are scattered far and wide over 
this land. 

Occasionally letters come from them seeking information 
relating to the genealogy of the family. Some want to know 
if they are eligible to the patriotic societies. Related to the 
ITorths ! Absurd ! ISTever heard of such a thing ! But here is 
the line back to Thomas and a soldier in the Indian wars, and 
we might as well take this occasion to say that there is sufficient 
evidence that Josiah Wilcox was a soldier in the War of the 
Revolution to satisfy the authorities at Washington. 

Lois, another daughter of Daniel Beckley and his wife 
Martha ISTorth, was married IsTovember 15, 1753, to Pete Galpin. 
They had lived in an old house that stood on the site of the large 
house now owned by Luther S. Webster on Worthington Street, 
Berlin, and they had nine children, from whom not a soul 
remains to represent the family. 

The mystery connected with an old well out in the lot, south 
of the Gilbert place, has been solved by the discovery of a 
mortgage deed signed by hand of Thomas Gilbert, April 17, 
1794, by which he gives, as security for a debt to Sylvester 
Wells, his home lot and house where he lives, described as 
bounded north by Hooker Gilbert, east on highway, south on 
burying ground and Asahel Root. Thomas Gilbert married 
Mary jSTorth, granddaughter of Thomas I^orth, and it is possible 
that this was the original North homestead. 



Simeon E'orth was a son of Jedediah jN'orth, who lived at the 
north end of Berlin village. He married in 1786, at the age 
of twenty-one, Lucy Savage, daughter of Jonathan Savage and 



THE NORTH FAMILY 29 

Elizabeth Rannej. We have seen that he bought, in 1795, one- 
ninth of a sawmill privilege, on Spruce Brook, and that, in 1796, 
he was living in the house he purchased of the heirs of David 
Sage. 

By deed of date March 6, 1795, he bought from Eben and 
Isaac Dudley of Middletown, seventeen and one-half acres of 
land, with house and barn thereon, described as situated in 
Westfield ; bounded east on the foot of the first ledge and Asahel 
Dudley's land, west on Capt. David Sage, and northerly on 
highway leading from Berlin to Middletown. The deed was 
executed before Amos Churchill, justice of the peace, and was 
witnessed by him and his wife, Lydia Churchill, who were the 
great-grandparents of the Misses Catharine and Sarah Churchill. 
Although the buildings conveyed by this deed were said to 
be in Westfield, they were on the top of the hill, on the south 
side, next east of Spruce Brook. Why the i^orths did not 
occupy this place at once is not known. It was improved and 
a large addition was made to the house. Possibly the family 
took refuge at the Sage house while the plastering was left to dry. 

On February 15, 1797, Daniel Willcox of Sandersfield, Mass., 
deeded to Jacob Wilcox, for the price of £12 10s. the sawmill 
standing on Spruce Brook, which was set to him in the distribu- 
tion of the estate of his father, Daniel Willcox, deceased. 

At a town meeting held in Berlin September 5, 1797, it was 
voted : — 

On motion of Mr. Hosford that a cominitte to consist of Gen. 
Selah Hart, Amos Hosford Esq. and Col. Gad Stanley be appointed 
to repair as many of the bridges and abutments as were injured by 
the late flood, as they shall judge proper at the expense of the town. 

Voted — That this committee is empowered to agree with the 
owners of a mill on Spruce brook to rebuild the bridge lately removed 
therefrom in such manner as shall answer for a mill-dam and a 
bridge. 

On June 3, 1805, Jacob Wilcox sold to Simeon North, for 
twenty-four dollars, the Mill site of forty-eight rods and three 
links "where sd Xorths blacksmith shop now stands." 

The children of Simeon North and Lucy Savage, his wife, 
were Reuben, born 1786 ; James, born 1788 ; Alvan, born 1790 ; 



30 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

Selah, born 1791; Elizabeth, born 1796; Lucetta, born 1799, 
Simeon, born 1802 ; Nancy, born 1804, all born in Berlin. 
Nancy died at the age of two years and three months, and the 
mother, Lucy, died February 24, 1811, in her forty-fifth year. 
They were laid in the burying ground east of the Roberts farm. 
A lease of that ground may be found on page 4301/0, volume 13, 
of Berlin Land Records, at New Britain. It reads as follows : 

Know all men by these presents that we John Roberts and Eleazer 
Roberts both of Berlin, . . . for the consideration of Ten Dollars 
received to our full satisfaction of Col. Simeon North of Middletown 
in the County of Middlesex, have leased and try these presents do 
lease unto the said Simeon North and to his Heirs forever, for the 
sole purpose of a Burying Ground, the following Lot of Land lying 
in said Berlin, containing about four rods of ground, bovmded North 
on highway. East, South and West on our own Land, being the same 
Ground which is enclosed and limited by a fence, and has been 
occupied heretofore for a Buryingplace — to have and to occupy the 
premises mito him and said Lesse & his heirs forever for the 
purpose of a Burying Ground only reserving to ourselves our heirs 
and Assigns the right of cutting & carrying away the Grass which 
shall grow thereon, in such a manner as to do no Injury to the 
monuments or Enclosure of the Premises. 

In witness whereof we have hereunto set out hands & Seals this 
4th day of January A. D. 1818, 

Daniel Dunbar, Justice of the Peace. 

Daniel Dunbar, John Roberts seal 

Ephraim Crofoot Eleazer M. Roberts seal 

This yard was used by all the neighborhood for many years. 
In the eighties the Norths were removed to Maple Cemetery. 
The Wards, Twitchells, and some others were removed also. 
The inscriptions on the stones which remain are as follows : 

Benjamin Cheney, Died May 15th 1815 M 90. 
Deborah Wife of Benjamin Cheney Died Nov. 3d, 1817 2E 80. 
(Both on one stone.) 

Allen Son of Benjamin Cheney d. in New York Mar. 17, 1815 
aged 40. 

Infant son of Olcott and Maria Cheney. 

Mary E Daughter of Olcott and Maria Cheney aged 10 mos. 

Stephen Brewer died Sept. 23rd 1825 aged 23. 



THE NORTH FAMILY 



31 



Harriet Deming died July 12th 1875 aged 79. 

James F. son of David and Elizabeth Stevenson d March 18th 

1847, aged 7 yrs. 

James F. son of David and Elizabeth Stevenson died May Ist, 

1848, aged 11 mos. 

John Koberts died June 19th 1837, aged 92 yrs. 
Sarah. Merrils wife of John Roberts, died May 25th 1830 aged 
82 yrs. 

Mr. Samuel Guy died August 4, 1811 aged 34 yrs. 3 mos. 

(Stephen Brewer worked for the IN'orths and boarded in their 
family. He died there of spotted fever, or ^'Berlin fever," as 
it was called. In the delirium of his sickness his screams were 
fearful t^ hear, and it required the strength of several men to 
hold him in bed.) 

There were other burials here, but graves are unmarked. 

Lilies of the valley, planted on the I^orth graves, have spread 
all over the yard and out into the adjoining field. The spring 
after the Bensons came to the Hulbert place they saw a man, 
with a big market basket on his arm, tramping all around in the 
grass, picking the flowers. When they ordered him away he 
said he came there every year, all the way from Hartford, to 
gather those lilies of the valley to sell, and he thought they were 
mighty mean to object. 

The magazine, Outing, for January, 1902, contains an article 
by John Paul Bocock, entitled "Collectors and Collections of 
Pistols," in which he speaks of Mr. W. A. Hatch of South 
Columbia, IST. Y., who, in his work as a collector of odd pieces 
of china in remote farm houses, occasionally happened upon 
curious old pistols. He goes on to say: "In this way he was 
enabled a few years ago to secure such a unique trophy as a 
pair of flint lock duelling pistols made in the United States by 
the first American pistol maker, S. ISTorth of Xew Berlin, Con- 
necticut, whose output since that day in 1813, when ho got a 
contract from the United States Government for 500 horse 
pistols, has been dearly prized by all fanciers of American arms." 
In the same article Mr. Bocock shows a cut of four rare, early 
American horse pistols from his own collection, made, he says, 



32 HISTORY OF BERLIN" 

by the first ofiicial American pistol maker, S. North.* They 
were flintlocks, dated 1813, 1818, 1821 and 1828, subsequently, 
with other flint lock arms in the govemment armories, altered 
by act of Congress to percussion lock. 

By chance, an account book, kept by Eeuben, the eldest son 
of Simeon ]!^orth, has been preserved, and the entries, which 
began in 1808, throw much light on the business conducted in 
the factory at Spruce Brook. 

In that year, 1808, many scythes were made and sold, mostly 
one at a time, to farmers in Berlin, Meriden, Middletown, Chat- 
ham, and Glastonbury. Occasionally there was a turn by barter, 
as on July 11, "to one scythe delivered to a Gentleman from 
Middletown Upper Houses to cancel a debt of $1.40 contracted 
for fish." The prices ran from seventy-five cents to $1.67, 
according to size and quality. The charge for a scythe four 
feet long was $1.50. One William H. Imlay, from whom the 
company purchased German steel at fifteen and one-half cents 
per pound — and blistered steel at sixteen cents, bought scythes 
by the wholesale. Twice ten and one-half dozen were delivered 
to him at $1.00 each. Sea coal was fifty cents a bushel and 
charcoal cost $7 per 100 bushels. Incidentally we learn that 
the workmen paid $1.25 a week for board and counted out all 
meals when absent. Washing was included. 

A milliner's bill, entered July 16, 1809, "for making Betsey 
and Lucetta's Bunnets" was sixty-two cents. 

A copy of a letter in the book, dated 1808, signed by Simeon 
North, shows that he had at that time agreed to make a quantity 
of pistols for the United States Govemment, and that he had 
procured bonds for the completion of the contract to be sent on 
to the Secretary of the Navy. 

Work on this contract began Wednesday, September 14, 1808, 
and in November of the following year Reuben credited himself 

* Since these papers were written, there has appeared a full and authori- 
tative treatment of Simeon North and his famous Spruce Brook industry, 
Cf. "Simeon North, First Official Pistol Maker of the United States," a 
memoir by S. N. D. North, LL.D., and Ralph H. North (Concord, N. H. 
The Rumford Press, 1913). This is a valuable contribution to the history 
of firearms in the U. S. and contains many beautiful cuts. 




(/ 



lArrtX.i^>^ c^W^ 



THE NORTH FAMILY 33 

$432, for work he had done on 2,000 naval pistols. Special 
parts mentioned in his account were side pins, side hammers, 
sear hammers, hammer springs, sear springs, triggers, bridles, 
tumblers, cocks, and side straps or hooks. 

In 1810-11 hammers were flying on the "second Job lot of 
2,000 ISTaval Pistols," and the next year found the men busy on 
2,000 horseman's pistols, and so we have evidence that at least 
6,000 pistols were made in the Spruce Brook shop before the 
1813 contract for 500 horse pistols referred to by John Paul 
Bocock. 

When the War of 1812 came on, our government was unable 
to get arms fast enough to supply the troops. By a note in 
writing, for which Deacon Frederic ITorth was given as author- 
ity, we learn that President Madison at this time visited the 
!N^orth factory in person and urged the company to increase their 
force. 

As the water power there was already worked for all the 
machinery it could turn, a new factory was built by Simeon 
N'orth at Staddlo Hill, about a mile and a half southwest of 
Middletown center. N^ow, certain family historians have said 
that the son Reuben attempted to carry on the work in Berlin, 
but was unsuccessful. The truth was that the father who 
established the business, kept it, as was his right, in his own 
hands, and all finished arms bore his name, "S. Korth." 

He removed to Middletown, but drove frequently out to 
Berlin where Reuben superintended the factory. Mrs. John 
!N^orth said he had the first carriage used in Berlin. It had a 
white top. In the old account book, names of twenty-eight men 
are found who came in 1813 to work for Reuben on the pistols. 
Of those names still remembered are Selah and Alvan North, 
Linas Hubbard, Abijah North, David North, Asahel and Jesse 
Root, Justus Buckley, John North, Ephraim Higby, and Selah 
Goodrich. 

Most of the men lived with the North family and the price for 

board had now advanced to $1.50 per week. Butter was entered 

on the journal at ten cents per pound, and beef, "100 cwt. at 

6 cts per lb." Wild pigeons made a fine stew, and they came 

3 



34 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

in great flocks. Mr. Bulkeley says they were so thick on their 
ledge that his father used to bring down six or eight at one shot. 
Amos Kirby, who lived in what is now known as the Atwater 
place, peddled meat then. When he had a creature to kill he 
used first go around to see if he could get orders enough for the 
beef to save himself from loss. 

Wages were low. Joseph Henderson "agreed to blow and 
strike awelding pistols at twelve dollars a month." 

"Selah Goodrich came to work three months at six dollars per 
month and three months after at eight dollars per month." 

This was in the days of apprentices. Many of the workmen 
after their trade was learned set up shops of their own. 

In that year, 1813, besides the work on pistols, 2,000 spurs. 
2,000 burrs for spurs, 2,000 back pieces for spurs and 2,000 
straps for spurs were forged and turned in the Spruce Brook- 
shop. 

At the close of the war, Simeon North was commissioned by 
the State of Connecticut to make two pairs of gold mounted 
pistols to be presented as a testimonial for their services to 
Captain Isaac Hull of the Frigate Constitution and Commodore 
McDonough who captured, on Lake Champlain, the English 
squadron imder Commodore Downie. 

Mr. N^orth had so much pride in the making of those pistols 
that he sent to England and brought over Peter Ashton a skilled 
artisan, who superintended the work. 

Commodore McDonough's daughter, wife of Henry G. Hub- 
bard of Middletown, had her father's pistols. After much 
thought as to their disposal she decided to give them to the 
Hartford Athenaeum and they were deposited there some twenty 
years ago. 

Who can tell us what became of Captain Hull's pistols? 

iN'athan Starr, whose sword factory was at Staddle Hill on 
the same stream as that of Simeon North, made for Captain Hull 
a beautifully engraved gold mounted sword, presented to him 
by the State with the pistols. 

It would seem an easy matter, when so many pistols were 
made in Berlin before 1813, to pick one up in am^ old garret, 



THE NORTH FAMILY 35 

but they have disap])eared, and it is next to impossible to find 
one on sale in antique collections. Alfred M. North, great- 
great-grandson of Simeon, recently came across one of the early 
makes in Philadelphia. Money, however, would not buy it, as 
the pistol was carried in the War of 1812 by the great-grand- 
father of the owner. 

Later on the Norths made at Middletown and Berlin many 
guns, rifles, carbines and muskets with bayonets to fit. 

Deacon Frederick North was authority for the statement that 
in 1781, when his grandfather Simeon was sixteen years old, 
he shouldered his gun and marched to Saybrook to enlist in the 
War of the Revolution, but when he reached his destination 
negotiations for peace were pending and he was not mustered 
into the service. He was Lieutenant Colonel of the Connecticut 
Sixth Regiment 1811-13 and was always known afterward by 
his title. 

It is said that Colonel North would never employ a man who 
was intemperate or immoral in anyway, and that no one ever 
worked for him who did not love him. His business with the 
government called him often to Washington and on his return 
he would go around the shop and shake hands with every man. 
Once while in Washington he attended a reception given by 
Dolly Madison and he was greatly impressed by her beauty and 
affability. 

When Lafayette made his last visit to America, in 1824, he 
was taken to the Staddle Hill pistol factory, as one of the sights 
of Middletown. In preparation for the event the workmen had 
their machines brightly polished, and in clean white aprons all 
stood in silence, backs to their machines. Instantly, as 
Lafayette entered the doorway, the power was started and the 
men whirled about to their benches and went on with the din 
and clatter of their work. 

Lucy Savage, the first wife of Simeon North, died February 
24, 1811, aged 45 years. He man-ied, second, in 1812, Lydia, 
daughter of Rev. Enoch Huntington of Middletown. When he 
brought Miss Huntington out to Berlin to see her prospective 
home he had added several rooms to this house, purchased in 



36 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

1796 from the Dudleys, and was about to build another addition, 
but she begged him not to do so. She said it would be work 
enough for one woman to keep the house broom clean as it was. 

Doubtless she was pleased when Mr. North bought, March 
11, 1812, her father's place on the west side of High Street, in 
Middletown, where they spent the remainder of their lives. 

There was only one house on the east side of High Street then, 
that of E"athan Starr. Mr. ISTorth owned land on that side 
which he sold with the proviso that during his life no building 
should be placed there to intercept his view of the Connecticut 
River, south as far as the Narrows. 

The second wife died in 1840, and Colonel North died August 
25, 1852, aged 87 years. Their graves are at Indian Hill 
Cemetery, Middletown. 

The old Huntington house was removed and the site is now 
occupied by the residence jof the President of Wesleyan Uni- 
versity. A street called Willis Street has been cut through 
north of the house. 

The pistol factory at Staddle Hill is now used by the Rock 
Fall Woolen Company. 



The children of Simeon North and his first wife, Lucy Savage, 
daughter of Jonathan Savage and Elizabeth (Ranney) Savage, 
were Reuben, James, Alvan, Selah, Elizabeth, Lucetta, Simeon, 
and Nancy. 

James, born September 16, 1788, was sent one day for grain 
to a gristmill in Westfield. He returned with the announcement 
that he had seen down there the prettiest girl he ever saw in all 
his life. It was a case of love at first sight. He waited until 
she was eighteen, and then, on October 24, 1810, he and Mary 
Dowd, daughter of Richard Dowd, were united in marriage. 
They ''lighted their hearthfire and set up their family altar" in 
a part of the old Spruce Brook house, but afterward followed 
the father to Middletown. They purchased a large, pleasant 
house, built by Oliver Wetmore, out at Staddle Hill — a sightly 
place, where they lived to celebrate on October 24, 1860, the 
fiftieth anniversary of their wedding day. 



THE NORTH FAMILY 37 

Fifteen children came to bless their home, thirteen of whom 
were living at the time of the golden wedding, and eleven were 
present on that occasion. James Korth died in 1865 and his 
wife, Mary, died in 1866, The names of their children were 
Henry, Lucy Ann, James, Mary, ISTorman, Harriet, Susan, Seth, 
Elizabeth, Richard (died in childhood), Frances, Richard, 
Luther, and Franklin. An infant son who lived only ten days 
made up the fifteen. The dates of their births ranged from 
October 11, 1811, to March 24, 1835. There were no twins. 
Jjucy Ann was married to James L. Wright, and her sister 
Elizabeth was the wife of William S. Wright. Their husbands 
were brothers, both Congregational ministers. 

Aunt Mary was a lovely woman all her days. Sometimes she 
was tired and discouraged with so many little ones clinging to 
her skirts, and then Uncle James would come around with the 
carriage and take her away for a long drive, until her nerves 
were rested again. 

They kept open house and entertained many visitors. How 
did they ever manage to feed so large a family ? Well, for one 
thing they made apple pies without peeling the apples. 

Alvan North married and had ten children. His son Ralph, 
born at Berlin, in 1814, studied law at Middletown and found 
his way to ^Natchez, where he became Judge and Chancellor of 
the 12th District of Mississippi. He died there in 1883. His 
daughter Florence was sent to Miss Porter's school in Farming- 
ton about the year 1854. After awhile she wrote home that she 
wished all the slaves could be freed. 

Her mother then said that if Florence must live at the South 
it would be better to educate her there, and she was taken back 
to Katchez, where she was married. 

The seed, however, sown at Farmington, had taken root and 
when the Rebellion broke she was loyal to the Union. Her 
husband was not permitted to continue his business, but she, by 
virtue of being a woman, contrived somehow to carry it on, and 
supported her family during those trying years. 

Other children of Alvan North were Willis, Walter, Jane, 
Emily, Horace, Mary Ann, Alvan, and Dwight. 



38 HISTORY OF BERLIN" 

Selah N'ortli, born at Berlin, l^ovember 29, 1791, was killed 
by lightning August 13, 1850, while standing in his own door- 
way at Stow, Ohio. He had thirteen children. The names of 
eleven were I^ancy, Egbert, Julia, George, John, Philip, 
Charles, Sarah, Kewel, Charlotte, and Betsey. 

Simeon ^orth, Jr., the youngest son of this family, born 
September 7, 1802, prepared for college partly in the old Berlin 
Academy. He graduated from Yale, with honors and as vale- 
dictorian, in 1825, and from JSTew Haven Divinity School in 
1828. A fellow student with the Rev. Joseph Whittlesey, he 
always spoke of him with respect and affection. 

While acting as tutor in Yale two years, 1828-9, calls to settle 
in the ministiy came to him from Fairfield and Greenwich in 
this state. In 1829 he accepted the chair of ancient languages 
at Hamilton College. After ten years service as professor he 
was elected fifth president of the college. This office he held 
until 1857. He married, in 1833, Frances Harriet Hubbard, 
daughter of Dr. Thomas Hubbard, Professor of Surgery in Yale. 
Their only child, a beautiful boy, born in 1842, died in 1851. 

Dr. Simeon ISTorth died February 9, 1884. His connection 
with Hamilton as professor, president, and trustee covered a 
period of fifty-five years. 

Elizabeth Xorth, born October 5, 1796, died of consumption 
March 25, 1831. She always entertained the boys who visited 
at "Grandfather's," and they thought Aunt Betsey very nice. 
Her beautifully wrought needle work has been exhibited at the 
Berlin fair. 

One evening as the family sat around the fireplace burning 
corn cobs, her father said he would give five dollars to any one 
who would light a candle from a cob ; Betsey said she wanted that 
money ; she knew what to do with it, she would buy for herself 
some winter flannels, and she persevered until the candle caught 
the flame. 

Lucetta North, born April 7, 1799, was the sister "Martha." 
It was she who kept the wheels of housekeeping in order, and 
she had not so much time to make herself agreeable to the chil- 
dren as had Aunt Betsey. She remained at home unmarried 



THE NORTH FAMILY 39 

and cared for her father in his ohl age. She died January 24, 
1863, at the house of her brother James, in Staddle Hilh 

Lydia Huntington ISTorth, a daugliter and only child of the 
second marriage, born in Middletown, March 26, 1814, was 
man'ied March 2, 1836, to Rev. Dwight M. Seward of Durham. 

He was ordained and installed February 3, 1836, at a salary 
of $750, over the Congregational Church of ]Srew Britain. 
Toward the close of his ministry there was much agitation over 
the question of dividing the church, and on that account he 
thought it wise to resign his charge. He was dismissed June 
15, 1842, and on the 5th of July, 1842, "The South Congrega- 
tional Church in New Britain" was organized. Of its mem- 
bers 119 came from the mother church; 207 remained and their 
next minister was called at a salary of $600. 

Gloomy prophets predicted dire disaster for both churches. 
The First Church now numbers 827 and the South Church has 
enrolled on its catalogTie 1,111 members. 

Mr. Seward was installed over the church in West Hartford, 
January 14, 1845, and dismissed December 18, 1850. Other 
churches which he served were at Yonkers, N. Y., where he 
remained twenty-five years, and at Portland, Me. 

Dr. and Mrs. Seward spent their declining years at South 
xsTorwalk, where they celebrated their golden wedding in 1886. 
Mrs. Seward died there April 1, 1896. Dr. Seward retained 
much of his youthful vigor and continued to preach occasionally 
up to his ninetieth year. Ho died in January, 1901. 

Two children survive them, William F. Seward, editor of the 
Binghamton Republican, and Lydia E., wife of W. H. Gleason, 
whose son, Arthur Gleason, is managing editor of Country Life. 
Dr. Seward, in his address given at the golden wedding at 
Staddle Hill, said he feared that some branches of the family 
were deteriorating. For, he went on to say, "a few weeks ago I 
saw huge placards of a big show under the auspices of one Levi 
J. Xorth, which seemed to be made up of ponies, circusdancers, 
banjos, and comic songs. Boys bearing the same honorable name 
were among the performers. I suppose the showman must be 
related to us, but I was careful not to inquire, I felt indignant 



40 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

that the venerable name of our 'Uncle Levi' should be thus 
dishonored. This is almost the first stain which I have seen on 
the family escutcheon." l^ow, curiously, a newspaper cutting 
without date falls from an envelope, and we read as follows : 

Levi J. North, the famous old circus rider, died on Monday, at 
his Brooklyn home. He was born on Long Island in June 1814. 
As a boy he was so infatuated with a traveling circus that stopped 
in Brooklyn that he ran away and joined the company — ^becoming, 
before he was thirty, the most perfect horseback performer in the 
world — exhibiting himself before the crowned heads of Europe, as 
well as in all parts of his native country. Last Thursday he attended 
the funeral of his old time associate Frank Pastor (brother of Tony) 
and while standing at the open grave he turned to a little group 
of white haired veterans of the ring close to his elbow and said 
"Another one gone, boys. Who'll be the next?" On Tuesday night 
the same group gathered at Dent's chop house (a Brooklyn restaur- 
ant which North had been accustomed to visit) to arrange for their 
attendance at the funeral of North himself. He had fatally caught 
cold at Pastor's funeral. 



Reuben ISTorth, the eldest son of Simeon I^orth, born Decem- 
ber 11, 1786, remained on the Berlin homestead. By deed of 
date March 30, 1814, his father, for the consideration of $5,600 
conveyed to him his farm of sixty-six acres, with all buildings 
thereon. This did not include the shop, and the privilege was 
reserved of flowing for benefit of the factory, and digging stone 
from the quarry in the Pond Lot, so called. By the way, the 
stone for the foundations of the Worthington Academy was 
given by Reuben North from that Pond Lot quarry, south of the 
bridge. 

By a second deed, dated March 22, 1826, Simeon North con- 
veyed to his son Reuben one acre of land "at a place called 
Spruce Brook," with the shop and other buildings thereon, 
together with all the mill privileges thereto belonging. The 
price paid was $300. This water power was used to run a 
sawmill before and after the time, in 1795, when Abraham Sage 
sold one-ninth of his right in the mill to Simeon North. The 
logs were pushed in on a tramway from the east side. 





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^^^^k iJ^^Ht^^^'^^^^H^^H 






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(yyla^ e^c^ Kyh-yr^r^K 




f^y/f^^^Tf^/^ 



THE NORTH FAMILY 41 

Reuben North mairied, January 9, 1811, Lynda, daughter of 
Josiah and Huldah (Savage) Wilcox, who lived at what, in 
recent years, has been known as the Sherman Wilcox place. 
Their sons were Alfred, born October 3, 1811, and Samuel, bom 
March 11, 1814. Lynda, the mother, died March 18, 1816, and 
an infant, Lynda Wilcox, the only daughter in this family, bom 
March 17, too frail to survive, was laid in her mother's arms. 
Deacon Alfred ISTorth* was five years old at the time and he 
remembered that one of the neighbors lifted him up to look in 
the casket. He never forgot his mother and he fancied that his 

* ( Copied from papers of Catharine M. Xorth ) 

Alfred North, eldest of the seven sons of Reuben North, was born Oct. 
3, 1811. His education was obtained in the public and private schools 
of the neighborhood and in the old Berlin Academy. In early manhood 
he assisted his father on the farm and in the factory, and taught in the 
public schools of his native town and in Ohio. 

In 1840 he started in business as a merchant in Litchfield. The next 
year, however, he returned to Berlin where he conducted a general store 
until 1886. He was a licensed pharmacist. 

In 1844, six years before New Britain was set off from Berlin, he was 
chosen Town Clerk and Treasurer. For over forty years he was annually 
reelected to this office, until, in 1886, he resigned on account of failing 
eyesight. 

Although a Whig and then a Republican, he received the votes of all 
parties, and for many years no other candidate was nominated for the 
office. He was also School Treasurer. 

He was a member of the State Legislature in 1849 and in 1855. 

As Recorder he received many mortgages held out of town, and he 
determined to have a savings bank established in Berlin. Through S. C. 
Wilcox, then representing the town in the Legislature, he obtained a char- 
ter and, although he met with much discouragement, he persevered until 
the bank was incorporated, June 19, 1873. Deacon North was elected first 
president and held the office for twenty years. When he attended the 
meeting of July, 1893, and resigned his position, the deposits amounted 
to 200.000 dollars. 

In 1829, at the age of eighteen, he joined tlie 2nd Congregational Church 
of Berlin, under Rev. Samuel Goodrich. At the age of twenty, 1831, he 
was elected deacon. For twenty years he was superintendent of the Sun- 
day School and was Clerk and Treasurer of the Worthington Eccl. Society, 
also of the Church, for 40 years. He died Jan. 14, 1894. 

All his life Alfred North was characterized by a kind and generous dis- 
position. He was the general counsellor and adviser of the town and 
people of all classes came to him in their troubles and perplexities. He 



42 HKTOST OF BrSLES^ 

own dangLtr-r wa.? like ter. K^ferrii_£r '/j ter nane. one record 
give* ii as Eelinia and a grsnid-^u^teT h&d w> en^dnie Itfelinda, 
but she heneli alwajs signed it Ljnda. and she marked her 
linen the ^aob way. 

l^jAieni Xorth married, ]^t 2. 1^17, Haid^ Wiicox- a sister 
of his first wife. Their <JiildrE3i were BenbeiL. Jr., bom ilarch 
13, 1S18 ; Edward, bom March 9, 1S20 ; Simetm. bom Febm- 
arv 10. 1522: Frederic, bom Mardi 14, lS2-i, and Josiah 
Wikox, the seventh son, btan Fcbroaij 10, 1S27. Hnldah was 
so mnch afraid that pei^le might aeense her of being partial 
idiat she was better to Lrnda's boys than to her own. Seme of 
the nei^ibors did not like her as w^ as ihev did Lvnda. ^dio 
was kind to erarbodT. They thoo^it Hnldah radi^" high f eel- 
ing. She said, '^Samnel, if yon can't go in the best sodety there 
18 in Berlin, dcm't go in any.~ The workm^i nsed to sit at 
erening around a huge fir^laee in the kitehou and die boys 

attorred a qnandL, abovte aO, a faadlj quarrel, aad he alvxjn strove to 
brb^ alxmt a peaee6d ae ttkia t ia sack a ease. 

He Barried Ha^ 8, 18M, Hair Olhre WDeox, b. iki^ 7, 181£. Ber 
pazeats vere Bidbard Wik»x c< East Berlia, a iVirrilmf (rf Joki WiDeaac 
<WiIkoda), oi%. pra^. of Hartford, aad OKre [Pocter] WDeatx. a 
Off Joka Ftatcr. wOler of Wiadaor. She dBed May 31M, 1883. 



L P2A9CIS ArecsTCS, b. Jaae 4, 18K, ^lairted Uc father ia the store 
aad Etodied aane nder T>t. Baraet^ org aai st o< Ae Carter Chareh, 
Hartfoid. Ia US» he aeeepfced a positioB with Aadre k. Camfmmw 
of FhDad^hia, PablidherB aad Jmfotterm of sheet amie. Erea- 
tmlfy he paicittaed Ae YimMrm, hat later sold to the Ditsnu aad 
started the Lester Kaao IfaaafMtariag Coayaaj. Be died Sef«. f , 
190#. 

He aiaiTied at FhOadelphia, Oct. It, 1867, Flwalwth W. Moor- 
head. Their tw> bok, .Alficd M^ hu FefcL », 1872, aad Bobert L, 
bL Xor. 19, 1873, edaeated ia the schoob of Philadelphia aad at 
PriaeetOB Uaiie r ^i . begsa b wisi a wa UngiAgT ia Phil a dfip hia as 
anaafaetarers. Bobert died Jaa. 12, 1901, at a^ of 27. 

(It appears ti^t Alfred Mooihead Sbrth, who icaides ia Geiana- 
ttma, Fhikid^hia, b the oahr firia^ <Vf<e a djat of Deaeoa Alfred 
Xcwth. He is the foaader vA The Aaerieaa Metal Worts, of which 
he is tieaaarvr, aid <rf the Cheltea Eleetrie Coa^a^ of Philadel- 
phia.— Editor. ) 
n. Catsakse 3L (1810-1914)1. See Fbrewoid. 



THE NORTH FAMILY 43 

loved to steal out there to hear them tell their stories, but this 
was not allowed, they were called back and kept with their father 
and mother in the "middle room." The large circle of cousins 
deliffhted in visiting at Uncle Reuben's. They said Aunt 
Huldah always put her best foot foremost, and truly she did 
make an attractive home there. To her it was, as she said, the 
"Garden of Eden." 

Besides the Middletown Sentinel, for secular news, and the 
Puritan and Recorder and Evangelical Magazine for Sunday 
reading, the Boston Cultivator, with its weekly budget of advice 
for better ways of managing farm work, brought also word of the 
latest improved fruits and flowers for the garden. 

A large, square plat of ground, southeast from the house, was 
guarded from dogs, cats, and chickens by a close picket fence. 
Here stately sun flowers, flaunting princess feather, and great, 
red poppies elbowed corn and beans. Along the fence were 
currant bushes, and prickly gooseberries, and thorny raspber- 
ries, with beds of strawberries and asparagus. From the cor- 
ners tansy, motherwort., sage, catnip, and trailing hops, cut and 
dried for winter, eased many a pain. Aromatic fennel, dill, 
and caraway furnished meeting seed fresh from June to October, 
and dry from October to June again. Did you ever feel around, 
under the tufts of the pew cushions in the old church, with your 
little fingers for stray fennel seeds ? 

In the center of the garden was a great, spreading pear tree, 
that bore bushels of fruit, small, sour, puckery, and hard at the 
core; but the sauce! After the boys married their wives had 
to "do up" a large stone jar full of those pears every year. 

In the southwest comer a tall tacamahac or balsam-poplar scat- 
tered sweet, sticky buds to be made into healing salve. Up the 
balsam climbed a scarlet trumpet creeper, grown from a root 
given to Huldah by her sister Hepsy when she lived at the 
Dr. Brandegee place. Mulberry and cherry trees rivaled the 
honeysuckle for the attention of the birds and gay flowers — 
bee-balm, marigolds, butter-and-eggs, four-o'clocks, flowering 
almond, dahlias, portulaca, flower-de-luce, 'stertions and every- 
thing that anybody else grew, were found in this garden. 



44 HISTORY OF BEELIN 

One winter's dav Wallace, the hired man, who had never seen 
a dahlia root, brought all the tubers up from the cellar and 
boiled them for his dinner. 

West of the house was the apple orchard. There was one tree 
called the "bitter sweet," m ! m ! drawn from the brick oven, at 
supper time, those apples were like nectar. Handy, at the foot 
of the cellar stairs, was a sleigh body, yellow striped with black, 
that might have come out of the ark, and almost as big, filled 
with apples for winter use, and every time the cellar door was 
opened up came a whiff of fragrance from those apples. 

All along the fences were peach trees, pears, cherries, and 
plums. Peaches were so abundant that they were fed to the 
swine. 

As the sun nears the western hills, let us follow the lane-way 
south of the house. First, on the left hand, are the bee hives. 
Go softly here, those bees are vicious ; once they came out and 
stung an innocent child. She ran screaming back to the house 
to her grandmother, who sent Josiah down the hill to get some 
mud, from a puddle in the road, for a plaster. In the lane, on 
the west side, we take out a fence rail and step over into the field 
to t€st the watermelons. 

On the other side we halt to see how the walnuts are coming 
on. Two famous, great trees stand here in the open meadow. 
The shells, from one, chock full of buttery meat, are so thin that 
the children crack them with their teeth. 

'Now, at the end, we let down the bars and call "Co, co." 
Soon, from distant, shady corners of the great pasture, come the 
cows, eager for milking time. There was no patent separator 
for the cream of this dairy, but if you had once tasted the butter 
that "came" in that old barrel chum, it would make your mouth 
water to-day to think of it. Dr. Gridley always wanted Mrs. 
Reuben ISTorth's butter as long as she had it to spare. 

And the cheese, — for this, a big tub full of sweet milk was 
required, and so Mrs. E'orth and Mrs. Xormand Wilcox, across 
the way, took turns about and put their milkings together. In 
the long shed room, in the southeast corner, was the cheese press, 
and up in the southwest chamber, on shelves, row upon row of 



THE NORTH FAMILY 45 

cheeses were placed to ripen — turned every day and rubbed with 
butter, until, sweet, mellow, and nutty, they would, to use 
Edward I^orth's expression, almost set one longing to be mites. 

Sunday mornings the house w^as vocal with song. The father 
led the choir in church and the boys all helped. Alfred sang 
bass, and Samuel carried the tenor. Reuben played the violin ; 
one he kept for that service, a sort of sacred fiddle, which he 
would never allow anyone to use for dancing tunes. Josiah 
played the flute so acceptably that the church gave him one with 
silver keys. He also studied the piano with the first Mrs. 
Joseph Whittlesey, and under her instruction ho played the old 
church organ. The mother boasted that she fitted out twenty- 
one from her home, every Sunday for church. 

The young people, who had to walk, struck into the woods 
west of the Ward place and followed a well-beaten path, across 
lots, that came out by Colonel Bulkeley's ledge. In summer 
time, to keep their nicely blacked shoes clean, they carried them, 
with their stockings, in their hands until they reached the 
village. 

Reuben North was one of the first in town to take a stand for 
temperance, but when haying time came the men would not 
work without some liquid refreshment stronger than ginger and 
molasses stirred with water, and Alfred was sent up street with 
a jug for 'New England rum. 

Reuben ISTorth, Jr., in his dairy under date Eebruary 27, 
1838, writes: 

Attended a temperance meeting at the chapel. . . . Mr. Gary 
(principal of Academy) thought it was worse to drink cider than to 
drink brandy. Dr. Gridley thought we drank too much of every- 
thing. Mr. — (a clergyman) thought a man had a right to drink a 
little wine or cider at his own discretion. 

An incident helps us to a date relating to the work in the old 
pistol factory. The Rev. James McDonald was settled here 
from April 1, 1835, to ITovember 27, 1837. One day as he 
drove over the bridge by the shop he called out '"^Making guns 
to kill people with !" '^jSTo," replied Mr. j^orth, with indigna- 



46 HISTOKY OF BEELrN" 

tion, "I am making gims to save life I" Possibly this remark 
of tlie minister's set the sons to thinking that the business was 
not a proper one for Christians. Thev seemed to be prejudiced 
against it, and not one of them, so far as is knovni, kept any 
memento of the place more belligerent than a pair of tongs or a 
tuning fork. 

The size of the factory is unknown but it had two stories 
above the basement and was entered from the street. Work 
was discontinued there in the winter of 1S42-3. As has been 
said, "It is strange how fast a building goes to decay when out 
of touch with humanity." 

Twelve years or so later Deacon Alfred Xorth went into the 
shop one day and, upstairs, a beam on which he stepped, broke 
and he fell to the lower story astride another beam, which for- 
tunately held and saved him from being dashed upon the rocks 
below. The factory was still standing in the winter of 1S56-7 
and George S. Xorth, a grandson, went all over it. When his 
grandmother knew what the boy had done she was frightened 
and told him never to go in there again. Then he stood on the 
bridge and threw stones at the windows, and that hurt her 
feelings. Many tools and scraps of iron were lying all about 
at that time. Soon afterwards a flood came and carried off dam, 
shop and all. The pond was a favorite swimming place for 
boys, and in winter the young people of the village liked to go 
there to skate, for the reason that they could warm themselves 
by the shop tires. 

Back in 1S26 Eeuben Xorth had paid for his farm and was 
prosperous, when a friend, for whom he had given his name as 
security for a large amount, failed in btisiness. Compelled to 
face the obligation he covered his property with mortgages, and 
from that time on, with broken health, it was a struggle to pay 
interest money and make ends meet. However, "he did the best 
he could for his boys." Edward and Josiah were educated at 
Hamilton College, and the others had what advantages were 
afforded by the district schools and the Worthington Academy. 

Reuben Xorth died April 4, 1S53, aged sixty-seven years. 
Huldah, his wife, remained on the homestead for awhile, but it 



THE NORTH FAMILY 47 

was lonely for ber there, and she went to live with a favorite 
niece, Mrs. Emily North McKay, in East Berlin, where she died 
September 11, 1805, a2:ed seventy-six years. At her gi'ave on 
the hill. Rev. Wilder Smith, who conducted the service, spoke 
these words : 

In bring'ing this aged mother to this place, we have brought her 
past the home of her birth, past the home she entered as a bride, 
and from the home of her old age, and have laid her down in this, 
her last resting place, no more to be disturbed until the morning of 
the Resurrection. 

Of the seven sons in this family Alfred, the eldest, died 
January 14, 1894, at the age of eighty-two years. 

Samuel, social, cheerful and large hearted, died April 30, 
1878, at the age of sixty-four years, in Middle Haddam* where, 
for fourteen years, he was deacon of the Congregational church. 

Reuben, who was a very religious young man, was a favorite 
with the young people for his musical ability and pleasant man- 
ners. He died of consumption !N^ovember 22, 1844. 

Edward ISTorth, now affectionately known as '"Old Greek,"* 
unit<?d with the Second Congregational Church of Berlin in 1831, 
at the age of eleven years. He fitted for college partly under 
Ariel Parish at the Worthington Academy, and graduated from 
Hamilton, as valedictorian, in 1841. Two years later he was 
elected Professor of Ancient Languages in Hamilton, and when, 
in 1901, he resigned the chair of "Greek and Greek Literature," 
he had covered a terai of fifty-seven years in the service of the 
college. He died at his home on College Hill, September 13, 
1903, aged eighty-three years. His son, Dr. S. X. D. Xorth, 
also a graduate of Hamilton, class of 1869, is well known as 
Director of the Census, and as head of the "]^orth Tariff Com- 
mission," recently sent abroad by President Roosevelt for a 
conference with the German Tariff Commission. 

Gladys North, a daughter of S. iST. D. North, is a member of 
the ''Olive Mead Quartette." 

* Cf. "Old Greek : An Old Time Professor in an Old Fashioned College." 
By S. X. D. North. New York, 1905. 



48 HISTORY OF BERLIN" 

Simeon ISTorth, the fifth son, died as the result of an accident, 
January 20, 1842, at the age of twenty years. He went one 
winter day upon Lamentation to help bring home some firewood. 
On the way down the mountain the sled slipped and overturned, 
so that he was caught and crushed under the weight of the load. 

Frederic North, once leader of the choir, and superintendent 
of the Sunday school, and many years deacon of the Second 
Congregational Church, in Berlin, died September 17, 1897, 
aged seventy-three years. 

Josiah Wilcox North graduated from Hamilton College in 
1848, and from Yale Divinity School in 1852. He went West 
as a Home Missionary and held pastorates at Geneseo and 
Como, 111. His health failed and he was abliged to abandon 
his profession. He died December 13, 1882, in the fifty-sixth 
year of his age. 

Josiah was never punished when a child, for the reason that 
he never did anything that merited punishment. His mother 
said the only thing he was set about was that he would have a 
clean collar every day. 

Note. An incident is here given to show Dr. Edward North's 
tact in dealing with his young men. One morning, as he entered 
his class room, he saw upon the black board, a very clever caricature 
of himself, drawn by an artist student. He looked at it a moment, 
then turned and said "Young gentlemen, will you please rub that 
out; one is enough." 



The question has been asked how, in the days when no sturdy 
handmaidens came from across the seas to knock at our doors, 
work was done in families like the Norths. In this particular 
household, homeless girls were sometimes taken, or bound until 
of age, and trained in all the mysteries of domestic science, until 
fitted to conduct homes of their own — and they were all married. 

A document, written in 1812, shows that the selectmen of 
Berlin indentured to Beuben North, a poor child, whose parents 
did not provide for her, under these conditions : 

She was pledged to "obey all his lawful commands" and "to 
serve him faithfully until she arrive at the age of eighteen 



THE NORTH FAMILY 49 

years." He in turn agreed to provide her with "sufficient meat, 
drink washing lodging Cloathing and Phisick," and at the end 
of the time "to give her two good suits of Cloaths one suitable 
for every day wear the other for Holy days." 

It was a rule in old times for a girl to have a pillow case full 
of stockings in readiness for her marriage. Mrs. JSTorth told 
one of her young women that for every pair of stockings she 
would knit for herself, she would furnish the yarn and knit 
another pair to put with them. The girl replied, "My Bible 
tells me to take no thought for the morrow." 

Sometimes it was a sister, or a cousin who lent a helping hand ; 
one, the eldest of the family of eight daughters, came in her 
youth, and staid on year after year, honored as the mother's 
trusted assistant, until she was well past forty. Then a widower 
hailed from !New York State, in search of a wife to care for 
himself ; his four .daughters — one bedridden ; his three sons — 
one crazy, and his twenty cows. Some one expatiated to him 
upon the virtues of Aunt Patience and it was a sorry day for 
the "tribe of Reuben" — that August 5, 1833, when he carried 
her away as his bride. Her wages, carefully treasured for a 
rainy day, went to pay off a mortgage on the farm "out there," 
and her husband was grateful to be free from debt. She worked 
like a slave, but the family all loved her, and she did not die an 
"old maid." 

She is recorded on earth as having "no children." 

Widow Landers used to come from Middletown Upper 
Houses to nurse in time of sickness. She took snuff and used 
a colored handkerchief ; and there was an "Aunt Mattie Savage" 
who came for long visits. She was harmlessly deranged, and at 
night she would place by the side of her bed a row of chairs. 
She said the "Bill Witches" came in the night and sat in them. 

Young women who had learned the tailor's trade came by the 
week with patterns and shears and goose and made up clothing 
for the men and boys. One girl, who sometimes worked for a 
man tailor, laughed in her sleeve at an evening party, when she 
heard a young man say that he would never wear a coat made 
by a woman. She sewed every stitch of the coat he had on his 
back at the time. 
4 



50 HI3TOST OF BE^ILCr 

In 'JL~ \:z^. -^.i^" 5iiT<i-r:<:m c-r riie Xc^rzL noTise was a remiirk:- 
able waiinnj; zu-oiiine. invriiiiei. lSO.S-10. by Eeaben !N",>rtIi. It; 
was a enmbersonLe aifair. wiiiL keavy ponnders in a ronnd botroni 
box. A pulley tackle passed outside to wMcIl on Mon-iay 
mominss. a borse was attached and made to do tke great wasli- 
in^s. Wben the boys grew np they hated the sight of this 
machine and without regard to the feelings of their father, they 
managed to get it out to the bam. A duplicate of this wasker 
was to be made for Benjamin WEcox in IS 10. 

Tite large back exrension c-f the old Xordi hoase was torn 
away in the fifties, and the place has changed ownership several 
times. Of the garden not a vestige remains. The great shag- 
barks in the meadow, while still in vigor. feR victims to the steam 
sawmill in 1SS5. Trees grown from, a han<ifnl of the thin 
shelled nuts, planted by Edward Xorth. on his grounds at Clin- 
ton, have been in bearing many years. Even tiae fireplace 
brasses and firont door latch, with the fine brass knocker disap- 
peared. Strange to say this knocker has recently been found 
down in Guilford. Conn., and an effort ha.5 been made to obtain 
it for the colleetion of antiques to be exhibited at -Jamestown. 

The farm is now occupied by John Hanson and his family 
from. Swe<ien- 



By is^ of December 10. ISOT. Simeon !S"orth ^car love and 

affectLon" conveyed to his son Reuben die place next east of his 
own dwelling house, described as "containing one ro«>i of land 
. . . witt th.e dwelling kouse thereon standings that is now 
occupied by Simeon Strickland.*' '~The above land and house is 
to be estimated at $150 toward said Eeuben s portion." ^o pre- 
vious deei of this house can be found and the inference is that 
it was built by S. Xortk to be used by tenants. 

Leverett Moss occupied the place for a number of years. 
Afterward som.ebotiy lival there whose companions were fox- 
hounds and chicken thieves. One night in a drunken brawl ke 
skot and nearly kilLei a man. For this crime ke served a term 
in tke state prison. Then Minot Piper. latker of six boys. 



THE NORTH FAMILY 51 

purchased the property and repaired the house. The premises 
are now owned by Wm. E. S. Turner, 

Orrin C. Clark of East Berlin, a grandson of Simeon Strick- 
land, gives the following account of him : 

Bom in Glastonbury, March 25th, 1755, he enlisted in the Revolu- 
tionary war — marched from East Hartford — served six months as 
private under Captain Rowley, Colonel Waterbury and General 
Gates, and one year as private under Captain Miles and Colonel 
Canfield. He built galleys at Gainsborough, was in the battles of 
Ticonderoga and Skeinesborough and was discharged at Ticonderoga. 

He returned to Glastonbury and later removed to Middletown. 
In 1834 he moved to the Ward house (next west of Spruce 
Brook), and died there June 25, 1830, at the age of eighty-one 
years and three months. After his death, his wife, Mary Strick- 
land, and her daughter, Ruth Strickland Clark, moved to the 
old King house, the second west of the Ward place. Mary 
Strickland died there October 29, 1839, aged eighty-eight years 
and five months. She was buried beside her husband in the hill 
cemetery across the way. 

Simeon Strickland was employed in the iSTorth pistol factory 
in 1811, as shown by credit given him for work. His name 
appears in the "Connecticut Men of the Revolution," as a 
pensioner in 1832. 

Daniel Clark, the husband of Ruth Strickland Clark, died in 
Philadelphia, February 23, 1831, and she came back to Berlin 
with her children. In her old age she lived with her daughter, 
!Mrs. Mary Ann Richardson. She died in the John Lee house, 
west of the village hotel, June 14, 1885, aged ninety-three years. 
Her grave is in Maple Cemetery. 

Speaking of the loss of memory, Mrs. Clark said she never 
forgot when told that anyone was sick or in trouble. Bom in 
1792, at Glastonbury, she was quite young when the family 
came to Berlin. She remembered the first wife of Simeon 
Xorth very well, and the little Lucy, whose short life of two 
years and three months ended in 1806. When Lucy was two 
years old her mother had a severe illness and she was taken over 
to stay with the Stricklands. Mrs. Clark said she was a "cute 



52 HISTOET OF BEELIX 

little thing" and they became very fond of her. When Mrs. 
Xorth was recovering Lucy was taken back home and her 
mother cried because the baby clung to Mrs. Strickland and 
refused to go to her. 

Housekeepers of the present day, whose tables are supplied 
all winter with fruits and vegetables, canned at home, or brought 
fresh from the South, can hardly realize the longing for green 
food that came over some of the old people before their garden 
sauce was ready for use. 

Dandelion leaves, plantain, dock, mustard, shepherd's purse, 
and milkweed, boiled with a generous piece of salt pork, made 
an appetizing dinner, and besides all those herbs were '"good for 
the blood." In the last winter of Mrs. Clark's life she told a 
neighbor that she prayed to live until spring so that she might 
have a dish of greens. With the first April showers the neigh- 
bor was seen out in her yard, a tin dipper in one hand and a 
knife in the other, stooping here and there. When asked 
what she was about, she replied "I am answering Grandma 
Clark's prayer." 

A boy who was bound out ran away in the fall. In answer to 
the question why he had left his place he said, "They kept me 
on grass all summer and I was afraid they would feed me on 
hay all winter." 

The house next east of that occupied, in 1807, by Simeon 
Strickland, is supposed to have been built by Elisha Cheney. 
It was occupied in 1830-32 by John ]!^orth whose wife was 
Harriet Cheney. Their two younger daughters, Sarah and 
Elizabeth, were bom there. The place came into the possession 
of Elishama Brandegee and was purchased by William Dyer, 
who, in 1855, sold it with two acres of land for $350, to Harriet 
Deming, who made a home for her sister, Mrs. Emily Wright, 
and for her brother, Lewis Deming. They were all short of 
stature, so that they were known as "The Lilliputians." Sim- 
ple, honest and industrious they managed to make a living. 
Mrs. Wright went out washing. She would never slight 
her work but would keep at her tubs from early morning 
until eight or nine o'clock at night and all for fifty cents 



THE NORTH FAMILY 53 

a day. She carried her owii sustenance in a tin pail and 
was never known to eat a mouthful at the tables of those for 
whom she labored. She had a perfect horror of the poorhouse 
and declared that she would never be taken there alive. One 
summer she lived with with her husband, Trout Wright, in 
Kensington, under a shanty of boards that they set up, with 
their stove outside. She said "I tell my husband that we are 
like the Saviour. We have no place to lay our heads." She 
always wore a short dress above her ankles and walked with a 
funny little dog trot. Sometimes the boys, to scare her, would 
fire off a gun, and she would drop in the road as if dead. 

One morning when she came up to Mrs. William Riley's to 
work she was full of indignation, because as she climbed into the 
wagon and sat on the high seat, humped over to keep her balance, 
her feet dangling, some boys called out "toad on a harrer." She 
said, "I gave 'em as good as they sent, I told 'em they showed 
their broughtage up." The family came from Wethersfield and 
Mrs. Wright used to say that George Washington was a friend 
of her father's, and that he used to consult with him. 

Dwight E. Bowers remembers that the sisters used to make an 
excellent salve, of which one of the ingredients was obtained 
from frogs, and boys were paid in salve for all the frogs they 
brought in. They suspected afterward that the sisters had an 
Epicurean taste for frogs' legs. 

The house, besides its human occupants, was filled with cats 
and hens. Mrs. Wright said the chickens always came out to 
greet her on her return from work — first the rooster and then 
the hens, all in a row, followed. 

Lewis, the brother, was very pious. He had little, twitching, 
black eyes. He said he had a wife when he was young, but she 
stepped on a rolling cob and fell and hurt herself so that she 
died. He was often seen in the fields collecting medicinal plants, 
which he sold to the herb doctors. He used to carrs^ great bun- 
dles of them to Hartford, and he also supplied the saloons there 
with fresh peppermint for the making of mint juleps. He 
would come to the door and, in a faint, piping voice, explain that 
he could not speak loud because he had the liver complaint. 



54 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

Harriet died July 12, 18Y5, at the age of seventy-nine years, 
and was buried in the graveyard on the hill, Lewis then had 
to go to the town house. He used to come up to Dr. Brandegee 
to have his hair cut. The house was purchased by Alfred Lloyd 
Bowers and has been vacant for many years. 



CHAPTER III. 

The Hart Families of Lower Lane, Their Ancestors, Descend- 
ants, and Dwelling Places. — Ahhy Pattison and Her Ancestor 
Edward Pattison, the First Manufacturer of Tin-ware in 
America. — Emma Hart Willard and Her Worh. 

By "Mac" and "O" you'll surely know 

True Irishmen, they say, 
But if they lack both O and Mac, 

No Irishmen are they. 

"Mac" means son, "0" means grandson. 

The Hart family originated in Ireland. Through various 
transitions from Airt, O'h-Airt, O'Hairt, O'Harte, and Ilarte 
comes the Americanized name of Hart. 

John O'Hart of Dublin, Fellow of the Royal Historical and 
Archa3ological Association of Ireland, published, in 1877, a 
wonderfully complete genealogy of the O'Harts which bears 
this title 

IRISH PEDIGREES 

OR 

THE ORIGEN AND STEM 

OF 

THE IRISH NATION. 

This work, which represents the research of a lifetime, carries 
the O'Hart pedigree, family by family, name by name, back 
through 114 sole monarchs of Ireland, and through long lines of 
kings and queens of Scotland and England, back to the Garden 
of Eden. Alexandrina Victoria, Queen of Great Britain and Ire- 
land, comes in this family in the 136th generation from Adam. 
Milesius, the last of the pre-historic invaders of Ireland, was the 
progenitor of those 114 Irish monarchs and of the royal families 
mentioned. He married Scota, a daughter of Pharaoh Xectoni- 



56 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

bus, King of Egypt. Milesius was contemporary with King 
Solomon, and it makes us feel like giving the latter the endearing 
title of "Uncle Sol" when we read that his Egyptian wife is 
supposed to have been a sister of Scota. 

King Cormac Mac Art, called Ulfhada, on account of his long 
beard, was the 115th monarch of Ireland. He excelled all his 
race in wisdom, learning and goodness. Prior to the year 560, 
the kings of Ireland had their royal residence on the beautiful 
hill of Tara, twenty-one miles northwest of Dublin. The story 
of King Cormac Mac Art and his life at Tara in the third cen- 
tury reads like that of Solomon and his household as related in 
I Kings 4. He had always one thousand one hundred and fifty 
persons in constant attendance at his "Great Hall" which was 
300 feet long, thirty cubits high and fifty cubits in breadth, with 
fourteen doors. His service of plate, in daily use, consisted of 
150 pieces — flagons and drinking cups of gold, silver and pre- 
cious stones, besides dishes, all of pure gold and silver. King 
Cormac ordained that ten choice persons should attend him and 
never be absent from him. These were : 

1. A nobleman to be his companion. 

2. A judge to explain the laws. 

3. An antiquary to preserve the genealogies of the nobility. 

4. A Druid or magician to offer sacrifice and presage good or bad 
om.eniS. 

5. A poet to praise or dispraise every one according to his actions. 

6. A physician to administer physic to the king and queen and 
to the rest of the royal family. 

Y. A musician to compose music, and to sing in the king's 
presence. 

8, 9, 10. Three stewards to govern the house and the servants. 

With the exception that since the Christian faith was adopted 
the Druid or magician was changed to a prelate of the church, 
this custom was followed without change by all the succeeding 
kings down to the sixtieth from Cormac. The ancient records 
of Ireland at Tara were brought to complete accuracy during 
the reign of Cormac. Of several learned treatises written by 
King Cormac, one, "Kingly Government," is still extant. 



THE HART FAMILIES 57 

In his actions and judgment Cormac was so upright that seven 
years before his death God revealed to him the light of his faith, 
and thenceforward he refused to worship the idol gods of the 
Druids, whereupon they caused his destruction by the "ministry 
of damned spirits, choking him as ho sat at dinner, eating of 
salmon, some say by a bone of the fish sticking in his throat, 
A. D. 266, after a reign of forty years." 

St. Rodanus, in anger, because his brother was held a prisoner 
by King Dermot, laid a curse on Tara and it was forsaken as a 
royal residence in the sixth century. In 975 Tara was described 
as a desert overgrown with weeds and grass. Some earthen 
ramparts and mounds are now all that remain of its ancient 
magnificence. 

The Harp that once through Tara's halls 

The soul of music shed, 
Now hangs as mute on Tara's walls 

As if that soul were fled. 

So sleeps the pride of former days, 

So glory's thrill is o'er; 
And hearts that once beat high for praise 

Now feel that pulse no more. 

No more to chiefs and ladies bright 

The harp of Tara swells; 
The chord alone that breaks at night 

Its tale of ruin tells. 

Thus freedom now so seldom wakes 

The only throb she gives 
Is when some heart indignant breaks 

To show that still she lives. 

"That still she lives," was shown in 1S43, when Daniel 
O'Connell, greatest of Irish patriots, held monster political 
meetings in every corner of Ireland. There was never a mob, 
and, thanks to Father iMathew, there was no crime or drunken- 
ness at those meetings. The greatest rally of all was on August 
15, 1843, at Tara, when the attendance was estimated at three- 
quarters of a million. Of the limited editions of The Stem of 



58 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

the Irish Nation, a few copies were placed in the libraries of 
large cities in America. A complimentary cop}^ was sent to the 
Librarian of Congress, and another is in the Philadelphia 
Library. The latter may be taken out by a deposit of ten 
dollars. 

Mrs. F. A. iNTorth, some years since, wrote to Mr. O'Hart of 
Dublin, author of the Stem, and asked him if he could tell her 
how Stephen Hart of Farmington was connected with the 
O'Harts of Ireland. In reply he said : 

I am satisfied that your ancestor was descended from Stephen 
Hart of Westmill, Hertfordshire, England, who is the first of the 
namiB recorded as living in that country, and I believe that said 
Stephen Harte was a descendant of Lochlaan O'Hart . . . 

Mrs. ISTorth is referred by Mr. O'Hart to the "Irish Pedigrees" 
for further information. The work of a genealogist brings him 
a scanty livelihood. Mr. O'Hart confided to Mrs. ITorth an 
account of his straightened circumstances. He says: 

In 1889 Providence was pleased to take from me in the fortieth 
year of his age and unmarried, my good and only son, who up to 
his death affectionately allowed me £100 (sterling) annually out of 
his income as chartered Public Accountant in Dublin, and in 1894. 
died my cherished friend, the late George W. Childs of Philadelphia, 
Pa., who on the death of my son did benevolently grant me a muni- 
ficent annuity . . . but as the good Mr. Childs did not mention 
in his will his generous intentions toward me (and my dear wife if 
she survived me) his estate has refused the annuity to me. 

(Mr. Childs had promised to continue the annuity during the 
life of Mr. O'Hart.) 

The letter goes on to say ''These two deaths have in my present 
old age left me and my dear wife in very straightened circum- 
stances . ..." A paper enclosed gave a list of subscribers 
to a testimonial to Mr. O'Hart. The donations as there men- 
tioned amounted to £43, "in recognition of his invaluable 
services in elucidating Irish and Anglo Irish Pedigrees and 
Ethnology." 



THE HART FAMILIES 59 

We will now tuiii to Lower Lane, where, in ancient times, 
were four colonial Louses, in a row, all occupied by Hart fam- 
ilies, descendants of Deacon Stephen Hart of Farmington, born 
about 1605, at Braintree, in Essex County, England. Stephen 
Hart was at Cambridge, Mass., 1G32 ; at Hartford,* with Rev. 
Thomas Hooker's company, in 1635, and was one of the eighty- 
four proprietors among whom Farmington lands were divided 
in 1672. 

John Hart, the eldest of the three sons of Deacon Stephen 
Hart, lived near the center of the village of Farmington. One 
night, in 1666, the Indians set fire to his house, and all the 
family, with the exception of his eldest son John, who chanced 
to be away from home, at ^od (Avon), where he had gone to 
care for some creatures, were burned to death. 

The public calamity was increased by the destruction of the 
town records, which were kept in the house, f 

Captain John Hart, son of the John Hart and Sarah his wife, 
who were burned, married Mary, daughter of Deacon Isaac 
Moore of Farmington. They had five sons and two daughters. 

Lieutenant Samuel Hart, fourth son of Captain John Hart, 
born 1692, was a resident of Great Swamp in 1723, when he 
carried two bushels of wheat, valued at eleven shillings, to Mr. 
Burnham, the minister, as his tax for the support of the church 
at Christian Lane. 

He married, December 25, 1723, Mary Hooker, daughter of 
John Hooker, Esq., of Farmington. John Hooker was regis- 
trar, and you should see his beautiful handwriting, as it appears 
on the deeds of his time. 

* Tradition says, "The to\\ni of Hartford was named from a ford dis- 
covered by Deacon Stephen Hart and used in crossing the Connecticut river 
at a low stage of water — Hart's ford." 

t It is a pleasure to say that the early church records of Farmington 
which were said to have been burned in the house of John Hart, were 
discovered in Hartford in the winter of 1841-2. The book, its pages 
closely written, is about five and a half inclics in length by four in 
width. It is to be hoped that a certain volume of Worthington cliureh 
records, borrowed some twenty-five years since, and never returned, may 
have escaped the waste paper man, and that it may yet be discovered. 



60 HISTORY OF BERLIN" 

The home of Samuel and Mary Hooker Hart was west of 
Isaac l!^orton's on the northwest comer, now owned by Deacon 
Leonard C. Hubbard. 

Samuel Hart, Sr., died September 30, 1751, aged fifty-nine, 
leaving three daughters and one son. The second daughter, 
Mary, became the wife of the eminent physician, Joseph Wells 
of Wethersfield. 

The plan had been to give to the son Samuel, who was a boy of 
"good parts," a liberal education, but he was only thirteen when 
his father died, and his mother could not make up her mind to 
send him away from home. 

He devoted himself to the care of the family and inherited 
his father's farm. He was connected with the local train band 
of which he became the captain. His father, Samuel, had held 
the office of lieutenant. 

Samuel Hart, bom January 21, 1Y38, married, October 10, 
1757, Rebecca !N'orton, a girl of eighteen, daughter of Charles 
Norton. They had seven children, and then Eebecca died, July 
28, 1769, in her thirty-first year. Captain Hart married, sec- 
ond, October 4, 1770, Lydia, daughter of Captain John Hins- 
dale, who lived up on the "Street." Lydia was twenty-three 
when she took charge of Samuel Hart's little flock, and she had 
ten children of her own. The names of Rebecca's children were : 

1. Rebecca, born January 30, 1760, married William Cook of 
D anbury. 

2. Samuel, bom May 17, 1761, married, April 8, 1791, Mary 
Wilcox, daughter of Stephen Wilcox. 

3. Charlotte, Ijorn October 17, 1762, married December 2, 1784, 
Orrin Lee. 

4. Asahel, bom May 6, 1764, married, September 23, 1790, Abigail 
Cowles. 

5. Anna, bom February 16, 1766, died of consTomption, March 
25, 1784, aged 18 years. 

6. Jesse, bom January 3, 1768, married, November 28, 1792, 
Lucy Beckley. 

7. James, bom March 5, 1769, died April 12, 1770-1. 



THE HART FAMILIES 61 

The children of the second marriage were : 

8. Mary, born September 23, 1771, married John Lee. 

9. John, bom January 23, 1773, died September 13, 1816, aged 
44 years. 

10. James, born Dec. 26, 1774, died December 25, 1796, aged 22 
years, at Staunton, Del. 

11. Theodore, born August 30, 1776, died November 1, 1815, at 
Petersburg, Va., aged 39 years. 

12. Lydia, born September 18, 1778, married Elisha Treat. 

13. Betsy, bom September 21, 1781, died , aged 11 years. 

14. Huldah, bom July 12, 1783, died January 31, 1784. 

15. Nancy, bom March 8, 1785, married Joshua Simmons. 

16. Emma, born February 23, 1787, married, 1812, John Willard, 
M.D. 

17. Almira, bom July 13, 1793, married, October 5, 1817, Simeon 
Lincoln; second, John Phelps. 

Ten of these children lived to marry and have families. A 
notable assemblage, indeed, their descendants would make, if 
they could be brought together for an "Old Home Day" at 
Berlin, 

Captain Samuel Hart was the first clerk and treasurer of the 
Second Congregational Church of Berlin, in 1775. His views 
in regard to the final salvation of mankind differed from those 
of his brethren in the church, and he withdrew from their 
fellowship in 1807. 

It was said of Mr. Hart that while his thoughts were strong 
and clear, he was unwilling to speak in public until he had 
committed them to paper — in writing. He was a lover of 
books, and at evening it was said that he would gather his large 
family about the open fireside, and read to them, from the best 
English authors. Young, Locke, Thomson, Milton, and others 
of his favorites. There was at that time a village library from 
which he might have drawn his books. 

An old account book kept by David Webster, Esq., of Berlin, 
contains the following entries : 

Dec. 1784. Worthington Library company. Dr. to Chesterfield's 
Letters, 2 vol. a 24 agreed witli committee. Feb. 25th, 1783, Cr. by 
cash rec'd of Peat Galpin, part for books. 



62 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

"Peat" Galpiii lived in an old house that stood on the site 
of the large Edwards house now owned by Luther S. Webster. 
The inside cellar door of that house was Pete Galpin's front 
door. 

The graves of Lieut. Samuel Hart and his wife, Mary 
(Hooker) "Heart," and of Captain Samuel Hart, with his wives, 
"Rebekah Heart" and Lydia (Hinsdale) Hart, are in the South 
Cemetery at Worthington. The inscription on Lydia Hart's 
stone reads as follows : 

In memory of Mrs. Lydia Hart, Relict of Capt. Samuel Hart, 
who died Jan. 18th, 1831, M 84. Her generous self devotion in the 
various relations of Daughter, Sister, Wife & Mother, are best 
known to those who best knew her, but that hope of Salvation which 
made her life cheerful and her death serene, was in the mercy of God 
through a Savior. 

We have heard that once on a time a certain D. A. R. Chapter 
was rent asunder because they could not agree on the spelling of 
this name Hart or Heart. In the old deeds it is given first one 
way and then another, by members of the same family, and even 
for the same individual. 

Jesse Hart, born 1768, married 1792, was a cabinet maker. 
Before he kept the hotel, at Boston Corners, he lived in the 
brick house, now owned by Leon LeClair. It is probable that he 
built that house. His first wife, Lucy Beckley, died in 1814,n 
and, in 1822, he married, second, Mindwell Porter, daughter of 
Samuel Porter. Mr. Hart died in 1827, aged fifty-nine. Mrs. 
Hart survived him forty-eight years, and died July 6, 1875, 
aged ninety-one. It had been the custom, whenever there was 
a death in the community, to toll the church bell. Mrs. Hart's 
daughter, Mrs. Jane Hart Dodd of Cincinnati, said she could 
not hear the bell toll for her mother, and that was the first case 
remembered when the right was omitted. 

Aunt Mindwell, as she was familiarly known, will always be 
remembered, by those who knew her, for her quaint speeches. 
She lived, in her latter years, with her two sisters, Mrs. Almira 
Barnes, and Mrs. Sophia Camp, in the house now owned by 



THE HART FAMILIES 63 

Mrs. Hopkins. The "Sisters" were noted for their hospitality. 
They were always ready to open their house for missionary 
meetings, and prayer meetings, for the sewing society and to 
entertain guests. 

Lydia Hart, fifth child of Samuel Hart and Lydia Hinsdale 
Hart, married Elisha Treat of Middletown. They wore the 
grandparents of the Misses Emily and Adeline Wilcox of West- 
field Society, Middletown. , 

It is known that Mrs. Emma Hart Willard, in her poem 
''Bride Stealing," written in 1840, took the utmost pains to 
make the story historically correct. She said she had no idea, 
when she began it, of the diflficulty she would have in collecting 
the facts. 

Of the Harts she says : 

And thitlier hied, in friendly part, 
Norton's next neighbor, Ensign Hart, 
Whose comely spouse was, when he took her, 
The modest maiden, Mary Hooker, 
They walked with firm and even mien 
Their little Sammy led between. 

The genealogical books, copying from old church records, tell 
us that all these children of Lieut. Samuel Hart, and of his son 
Captain Samuel, were born in Kensington, or possibly in 
Farmington, and that is true. 

Miss Abby Pattison used to point out a stone, set near her 
house, which marked the old boundary line between Farmington 
and Middletown. 

The first Ministerial Society, formed October, 1705, in Great 
Swamp parish, or "ffarmington village," as it was sometimes 
called, received the name of the Second Society of Fannington. 

In May, 1722, its name was changed, by General Assembly, to 
Kensington. 

The Act, as recorded, reads thus : 

Kesolved by this Assembly that the 2d Society of Farmington, 
with what of Wethersfield & Middletown is by this Assembly annexed 
thereto, shall for the future be called and known by the name of 
Kensington. Passed by both Houses 1722. 



64 HISTOKY OF BERLIN 

Until the final division of the church, in 1772, nearly all of 
what now constitutes the town of Berlin was, ecclesiastically 
speaking, Kensington. 

The Samuel Hart dwelling house stood a little way north of 
the present house, on the corner. Some of the timbers from 
the old house are a part of Leonard Hubbard's wood-house. The 
well, south of the house, is the same that was used by the Harts. 
After Mr. Hubbard purchased the place, Mrs. Willard and her 
sister, Mrs. Phelps, called there and asked for a glass of water 
from the well of which they drank in childhood. Mrs. Willard 
left with Mrs. Hubbard, a framed engraving of herself, with 
the request that it might always remain in the house. 



A gravestone at the Bridge Cemetery in Worthington bears 
the following inscription : 

Thomas Hart, 

Died Sept. 21, 1832, 

Aged 78 years. 

The youngest brother of John, 

Elihu, Jonathan & Ebenezer, 

sons of Ebenezer Hart, who died 1795, 

Which was the son of Ebenezer Hart who died 1773 

Which was the son of Thomas Hart who died 1771 

Which was the son of Thomas Hart who died 

Which was the son of Stephen Hart, 

Who arrived in America & 

settled in Berlin, 1635. 

According to reliable records the family history as given on 
that stone, is incorrect. Deacon Stephen Hart, the progenitor 
of the IsTew Britain and Berlin Harts, came to Hartford with 
Mr. Hooker in 1635. He was a leader in the settlement of 
Farmington in 1640, and he died there in 1682-3 aged seventy- 
seven years. He never lived in Berlin, although in his will he 
mentions his land in "Great Swamp." 

Thomas Hart, son of Stephen, born 1644, captain of the 
Farmington train band, thirteen times chosen deputy; four 
times speaker of General Court; chairman of committees to 



THE HART FAMILIES 65 

protect the natives from "illegal trading" of lands with the 
whites; "to draw a Bill to prevent disorders in Retailers of 
strong drinke and excessive drinking" and "to prepare a Bill 
to put in execution the reform Lawes" was a man of wealth and 
influence. It is said that he owned 3,000 acres of land which 
was divided among his children. 

"Worshipful Captain Thomas Hart," as he was called, died 
August 27, 1726, in his eighty-third year, and was buried with 
military honors. 

The Hart homestead in Farmington was opposite the meeting 
house. 

A clause in Captain Thomas Hart's will reads as follows : 

I give my two sons, Thomas Hart and Hezekiali Hart, all my 
right in lands .that have fallen to me within ye limits of ye Great 
Swamp Society. 

This son Thomas was the Deacon Thomas who lived on the 
comer west of the Driving Park, and whose "home lot" was 
taken as a site for the second meeting house. He was a member, 
with his wife, of the Christian Lane church, in 1712, and was 
chosen deacon, after probation, 1719. He was Clerk and 
Recorder for the Ecclesiastical Society ; six times a member of 
General Assembly, for the town of Farmington ; chairman of 
memorialists and petitioners, justice of the peace, and was 
described as the most influential man in Kensington. His son, 
Deacon Ebenezer Hart, inherited the place, which is now known 
as Mott's Corner, and married widow Elizabeth Lawrence. 
They had five sons : 

Ebenezer J., born at Kensington, July 29, 1742, removed to 
!N^ew Hampshire, where he died in 1796, aged fifty-four years. 
He was the grandfather of Jonathan T. Hart, the manufacturer 
of Kensington. 

Jonathan, bom at Kensington in 1744, was a graduate of 
Yale in 1768. He was in the public service from 1775 to 1791, 
and was slain by the Indians, November 4, 1791, at St. Clair's 
defeat. He held the military rank of major. 
5 



66 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

Elihu, born Marck 4, 1751, was the unfortunate one of the 
family. He removed to 'New York State, where he failed in 
business. He was imprisoned for debt, and died in the jail at 
Coxsackie, ]^. Y. 

Doctor John Hart, born at Kensington, March 11, 1753, 
graduated from Yale in 1776, and soon after entered the army 
as surgeon. He died October 3, 1798, aged forty-five years. 

Thomas Hart, born 1754, whose faulty inscription suggested 
this account, was the fifth and youngest son of Deacon Ebenezer 
Hart, and his wife, Elizabeth Lawrence. He never married, 
but remained on the corner homestead, and adopted a daughter 
of his brother Ebenezer, Lydia Hart, to whom he gave the 
property. 

In 1834, the second year after her uncle Thomas died, Lydia 
Hart was married, at the age of fifty-four, to Theron Hart of 
JSTew Britain, and they lived on the place until her death in 
1850. 

Captain Thomas Hart, father of Deacon Thomas, was also a 
maker of reeds, for use in weaving. In his will, dated July 24, 
1721, is the following clause: 

I give imto my son Howkins Hart all my reed m.aking tools, great 
table and joynt tools, which he has already ia his possession. 

Deacon Thomas Hart's wife, Mary (Thompson), died Octo- 
ber, 1763, aged eighty- three years. Lieut. Isaac I^orton, father 
of Tabatha of "Stolen Bride" fame, died January 10, 1763, in 
his eighty-fourth year. 

At the beginning of the next year, January 11, 1764, Deacon 
Thomas Hart, aged eighty-four, and Elizabeth, widow of Isaac 
ITorton, aged seventy-nine, were united in marriage, by the Rev. 
Samuel Clark. She died March 28, 1771, and was buried beside 
her first husband in the South Cemetery, at Worthington. 

Deacon Thomas Hart died January 29, 1773, aged ninety- 
three years, lacking three months. By his will, made 1760, 
Deacon Hart gave to his grandson, Elijah Hart of New Britain, 
all the tools of whatsoever name he used in making reeds for 
weaving by looms ; also all the cane he might have at his decease. 



THE IIAltT FAMILIES 



67 



Hezekiah Hart, fourth son of Captain Thomas Hart of Farm- 
ington, born 1684, was assigned a "pue" in the Christian Lane 
church, in 1716-17. His father, in his will, dated 1721, gave 
him all his lands in Great Swamp. He married, in 1710, 
Martha, daughter of Benjamin Beckley of Beckley Quarter. 
They had nine children, of whom Zerviah, born December 16, 
1728, was married, December 19, 1761, to David Webster, Esq., 
as his second wife. 

Hepzibah, born April 16, 1732, was married January 18, 1753, 
to Isaac North, son of Deacon Isaac ISTorth. 

Mrs. Hart died September 7, 1752, and Mr. Hart died on the 
29th day of the same month. Their tombstones are in the South 
Cemetery at Berlin. 

They have many descendants who would like to know exactly 
where they lived. It is probable that their home was on Hart 
Street, in one of the houses long since torn down. 

Zachariah Hart, fifth son of Hezekiah Hart and his wife, 
Martha Beckley, born January 5, 1733-34, married, March 23, 
1758, Abigail, daughter of Joseph Beckley. She died July 12, 

1765, aged twenty-eight years, when he married second, June, 

1766, Sarah Parsons. 

There were in all eleven children, of whom Sarah, born 1770, 
was married to Shubael Pattison. She used to say that when she 
was two years old, her father, Zachariah Hart, built the house 
now owned by heirs of the late James B. Reed. This house, 
now a hundred and thirty-four years old, was built of fine 
selected timber, and will outlast many a modern structure. The 
inscription on the tombstone of Mr. and Mrs. Hart, in the Bridge 
Cemetery, reads as follows : 

In memory of Mr. Zechariah Hart who died Dec. 26tli, 1811, in the 
78th year of his age. 

In memory of Mrs. Sarah Hart, relict of Mr. Zechariah Hart, who 
died Jan. 26th, 1813, in the 80th year of her age. 

From cruel death no age is free, 
Nor sex, nor birth, nor blood you see, 
Tho' we were old, our time has come 
And you must follow to the tomb. 



6S HISTORY OF BERLIN 

The Zacbariali Hart house now stands alone at the north end 
of Hart Street. From that point a new road was extended, in 
1865, straight north until it joins '^Berlin Koad," half way 
between the village and the depot, while the old ''highway" turns 
directly east and runs up to the old church. 

iN'ot far from the comer, on the north side of the east road, 
there stood, until a few years since, a house known as the Jarvis- 
Tuttle place. The southwestern view, from this site, is one of 
surprising beauty. The house was the home of Ebenezer Hart, 
born N"ovember 27, 1722, eldest son of Isaac Hart. 

In 1741 Ebenezer Hart was one of a committee to receive 
funds from sale of "western lands" that may be divided to that 
part of this society that dwell in the bounds of Farming-ton; 
"to be loaned out by said committee" ; "always disposing of the 
interest thereof for the support of a lawful school in this 
society." 

The name of Ebenezer Hart's wife was Martha. They had 
four children when he died, ^N'ovember 17, 1753, in his thirty- 
first year. 

Abel Hart, their eldest son, who married Mary Galpin, sister 
of Deacon Daniel Galpin, had one son and ten daughters. They 
removed to ]^ew York State. Without this Abel Hart family, 
if we include that of Hezekiah Hart, we may count, by name, 
sixty Hart children, bom on this one street, and there were 
others, whose names are lost to us. 



Captain Isaac Hart, son of Captain John Hart of Farming- 
ton, was baptized ]Srovember 27, 1686. He came, with his 
brother, Lieut. Samuel Hart, to Great Swamp, where, in 1713, 
he was collector for the Ecclesiastical Society. In 1715 he was 
appointed surveyor. In 1720 he was credited with one and a 
haK bushels of com at 5s. 9d. on the rate bill for support of the 
minister. Money was scarce in those days, and men paid their 
church taxes in grain, or firewood, or with whatever they could 
spare from their farms. 

Isaac Hart married, ^N'ovember 24, 1721, Elizabeth Whaples. 
Their names appear in a list of members of the Christian Lane 



THE HART FAMILIES "^ 



church made up, in 1756, by the newly-settled minister, the Rev. 
Samuel Clark. Captain Isaac Hart was deacon of the church. 
He died January 27, 1770, aged eighty-four. His widow, 
Elizabeth (Whaples), died :NTovember 14, 1777. They were 
the grandparents of Luther Pattison, father of Miss Abby Pat- 
tison, and the old house, so dear to her, to which she clung to 
the list, habituating herself to the increasing slant of the floors, 
was the same to which Isaac Hart brought his bride. 

A writer in "Old Houses of Connecticut" describes this 
house, with its overhang, and goes on to say : 

The house is said to have been built by Isaac Hart in 1721. This 
we cannot believe. Isaac may have added the lean-to, but the house 
is of a type which belongs to a time before his day. If it ^^ ^^t so 
late as this, it cannot, on the other band be earlier than 16^0. Ihe 
house probably belonged to some settler, attracted to the neighbor- 
hood by the presence of Kichard Beckley, and was built m the decade 
which began with 1680. 

It was related of Isaac Hart that one day, when at work in 
his meadow over west, he saw a bear coming toward him. With 
only a pitchfork for a weapon, he mounted his horse, set chase 
for the bear, and killed it. 

Miss Pattison was bom in 1811. When she was young, 
Indians used to come straggling along, and stop to beg for feed, 
and a night's lodging. Her mother, who was always kind to the 
poor, used to prepare a bed for their comfort, out in the barn, 
and sometimes Abby was sent, alone, with the Indians, to the 
barn to make up the bed. She said she was not at all afraid 
of them. One day an old Indian and his squaw came there. 
The squaw took a Bible and pretended to read its pages devoutly. 
Her husband said, aside, "She can't read a word." 

About the year 1815 a number of lively young people of 
Berlin, attracted by the doctrines and zeal of the Methodist 
Church, formed a "Class," with a leader, and had preaching 
services occasionally. Their first meeting was held in the south 
front room of Luther Pattison's house. Miss Pattison said that 
when they asked her father's permission to come there, he 
answered, "I guess they won't hurt the old house." 



70 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

Miss Pattison's father had promised her that she should g'o to 
Mrs. Willard's school at Troy, but her mother became an invalid, 
and thenceforth her life was one of self-sacrifice and devotion to 
the needs of others. One instance will serve to show the kind- 
ness of her heart. A man who had lived with the family many 
years, paid a small sum for his board, until his money was gone. 
Aunt Abby, whose own income was probably less than a hundred 
dollars a year, said she could not send the old man to the poor- 
house, and she gave him a home free for the rest of his life. 

In her latter days Miss Pattison lived quite alone. One cold 
night she thought her pet kitten would suffer out of doors, and 
before retiring she carried it to a chamber. As she turned to 
go down the crooked stairway, her foot slipped and she fell. 
Her bod^' was so bruised and broken that she could not survive 
the shock. She died March 10, 1897, aged eighty-six. Up to 
that time she was active and had retained all her faculties. 
With her bright mind, if she could have had the advantages of 
Troy, as was said, "what a lady she might have been." 

After Aunt Abby's death the "old house" was vacant. iNToth- 
ing now remains of it but the great chimney foundations, ten 
feet or so square. One Sunday afternoon, it was August 2, 
1903, flames were discovered leaping out from the windows, and 
its end had come. A boy candidate for the Reform School out 
of "pure cussedness" had set a match to a pile of hay stored in 
one of the rooms. Speaking of the age of the house Miss Patti- 
son said she could count it back 180 years, that was more 
than nine years ago, and would take it to 1717, four years 
before Isaac Hart was married. 



A hundred years ago, around on Lower Lane, as it turns 
eastward, there was an old, forsaken dwelling house. Mys- 
terious lights were seen there at midnight, and the story went 
abroad that the place was haunted. Emma Hart was not to be 
scared by ghosts, or anything else. One dark, rainy night she 
and a young friend disguised themselves, and started out to 
investigate. Sure enough there were lights in the house. When 



THE HART FAMILIES 



71 



the two girls crept cautiously up to a window and looked in they 
saw — a company of men playing cards. 

In the first half of the eighteenth century, a Mr. Edward 
Pattison, who, to escape religious and political persecution, had 
fled from Scotland to tlie north of Ireland, planned to emigrate, 
with his family, to America, but he was tal^en sick, and died, 
befoi'e he could accomplish his desire. In accordance with his 
parting advice, his eldest son, Edward, came over to see what 
the country was like, and then returned for his brothers and 
sisters, William and ISToah, Anna and Jennie. 

It was said of Edward that he came from Boston to Berlin, 
with only eighteen cents in his pocket. Is it not probable that 
he had the same disposition seen in his great-granddaughter. 
Miss Abigail Pattison, and that he had given all he could pos- 
sibly spare to his younger brothers and sisters ? 

It would seem that William Pattison came to Berlin with 
Edward. He was in this vicinity in 1747, and was a member 
of Great Swamp Society. 

In 1754 he was in ISTew Britain and was one of the school 
committee in 1758-9. He was active in society affairs, and was 
an original member of the First Church, formed in l^ew Britain, 
April 19, 1758. He had a blacksmith shop next his house, on 
East Street, and was rated as one of the wealthiest men, at that 
time, in the parish. 

In 1759 he sold, for £300, his homestead of twenty-six acres 
of land, extending from East Street to Wethersfield line, with 
buildings thereon, to Dr. John Smalley, who lived there nearly 
thirty years. 

William Pattison and his wife, Sarah (Dunham), were 
received, April 11, 1762, by letter from New Britain church to 
the Christian Lane church. 

Another William Patterson* came to America from Ireland, 
and settled in Baltimore. By his great business talent he 
became one of the richest men in Maryland. Ilis daughter 
Elizabeth, bom February 6, 1785, was possessed of remarkable 
beauty and wit. 

* A variant spelling for Pattison. See below. 



72 HISTORY OF BERLIN" 

In 1803, Jerome Bonaparte visited this country and met Miss 
Patterson at the autumn races at Baltimore. It was a case of 
love at first sight. They were married Christmas eve of that 
year. 

On July 7, 1805, a son, named for his father, was born to them 
at Camberwell, England. Jerome professed to be very fond of 
his wife, but ISTapoleon Bonaparte had other plans for his brother 
and caused the marriage to be annulled, 

Madame Bonaparte spent much time abroad, but returned to 
Baltimore, where her last days were spent in a quiet boarding 
house. She died April 4, 1879, aged ninety-four. 

Their son, Jerome, married jSTovember 30, 1820, Miss Susan 
May Williams of Baltimore. Their son, Charles Jerome Bona- 
parte, grand nephew of N'apoleon Bonaparte, is now (1905) 
Secretary of the JsTavy, U. S. 

It would be interesting to know the connection between the 
William Pattison of Berlin and the William Patterson of 
Baltimore, both of Scotch descent, and both from the north of 
Ireland. 

Mr. Charles J. Bonaparte, in answer to a letter of inquiry, 
states that he has not been able to trace his Patterson ancestry. 
He said, however, that he did not think the two families could 
be related for the reason that in Baltimore, the name was spelled 
^'Patterson" whereas his correspondent spelled it "Pattison." 
If Mr. Bonaparte should consult the Berlin records he would 
find Pattison, Patterson, and Paterson. Edward's branch of the 
family have preferred the "Pattison" spelling. 

Edward Pattison's sister Anna came to Berlin and was mar- 
ried to Amos Galpin. They were the great-grandparents of 
Henry ]^. Galpin. Xoah and Jennie Pattison went South and 
all trace of them has been lost. 

Edward made his home on Hart Street. A well in the lot 
south of Miss Abigail Pattison's is all that now remains to mark 
the site of this dwelling place. He was a tinsmith by trade and 
his shop stood opposite his house on the north corner of the 
property now owned by the heirs of the late William F. Brown. 



73 

THE HART FAMILIES 

Here, about the year 1740, Edward Pattison eBtaWished d.« 
manufacture of tinware-the first made an Amer.ca^ M firs 
the ware was a luxury, and a great curiosity. At Tabitha 
Norton's wedding the guests exclaimed: 

"Oh what's that lordly dish so rare. 

That glitters forth in splendor's glare? 

Tell us, Miss Norton, is it silver? 

Is it from China, or Brazil, or—?" 

Thus all together on they ran. 

Quoth the good dame, '"Tis a Tin Pan- 

The first made in the colony; 

The maker Patterson's just by— 

From Ireland, in the last ship o'er— 

Tou all can buy, for he'll make more." 

Mr. Pattison began the sale of his tinware by carrying it 
from house to house in baskets suspended from the back of a 
hoTe The tinplate was imported from England and during 
the Revolutionary War the business in this country was 

'Tonnjmen employed by Mr. Pattison set up shops for them^ 
selves and after the war peddlers were sent all over the Sou h 
Tnd West with wagons loaded inside and out with bright tin 
pans, kettles, etc., made in Berlin. t„ T7ii,o. 

Edward Pattison was married November 28, Kol, to Eh^a 
beth (Betsey) Hills. They bad six children, Edward Shubael, 
Lnltia, Loii, Elizabeth, and Rhoda. Mrs. Pattison had large 
brilliant, black eyes, that have been transmitted to some of her 
des end nts, to tL present day. Mr. and Mrs. Pattison have 
tmbstones in the South Cemetery at Berlin. Their inscrip- 

tions read as follows : 

In memory of Mr. Edward Pattison who departed this life Dec. 

99fl A D 1787 in the 57th year of his age. 
1;temory of Mrs. Elizabeth, relict of Mr. Edward Patfson, who 

died Xov. 6th, 1804, JEt 72. 

Mr. Pattison's age, as here given, would make .l^;"^ °"l.y;=° 
years old in 1740, and doubtless tliere was a mistake. Miss 



74 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

Ruth Galpin has a record of her great-great-grandmother, Anna 
Pattison, which shows that she was bom in 1724, and was mar- 
ried to Amos Galpin, !N"ovember 5, 1745. She was sixteen in 
1840 when her brother Edward was said to have settled in 
Berlin. 

Edward Pattison's sons, Edward and Shubael, continued their 
father's business. By deed of date February 6, 1786, Mr. 
Pattison, for the consideration of £30, conveyed to Shubael a 
tract of land, which, judging from the description, must have 
been the same that was sold by heirs of Shubael Pattison to 
"William F. Brown about the year 1848. 

In 1787, Shubael married Sarah, the seventeen-year-old 
daughter of Zachariah Hart, his father's second-door neighbor 
on the north, and it is supposed that he built, at that time, for 
the reception of his bride, the large white house now occupied 
by the Browns. He also built a large, new shop on the south 
comer of his lot, where he made gTeat quantities of tinware, 
which he carried in wagons to Canada, where he sold it in 
exchange for furs. 

It is said that John Jacob Astor was his companion on some 
of those Canadian trips. The business was very profitable. 
Mr. Pattison brought his furs home to Berlin and employed 
girls who came from jSTewing-ton and all about to make them up 
into muffs and other articles in his shop on the comer. 

There is a springy feel under the feet as one walks through 
this street. A few years since, when Elmer E. Austin planted 
a row of apple trees along the side of the road, by his premises, 
he found tin chips buried there the whole distance, and some of 
the trees died because the roots could not penetrate to the under 
soil. 

In the fall of 1828, Shubael Pattison went to iSTew York City 
on business, where he was taken suddenly ill with congestion of 
the lungs, on a Friday afternoon. A letter sent to Berlin was 
received the next Tuesday night. Two of Mr. Pattison's sons- 
in-law, who started the next morning to go to him arrived Thurs- 
day. Think of that "slow coach." Mr. Pattison died the next 
day, !N"ovember 8, 1828, aged sixty-four. He was brought back 




Emma Hart Willard 
(From a painting by Robert Boiling Branrtegee) 



THE HART FAMILIES 75 

to Berlin, and bis funeral, attended in the chnrcb on Monday, 
"was calculated to be tbe largest funeral ever held in the town." 

Sbubael Pattison and bis wife, Sarah ITart, had ten children : 
Harriet, wife of the merchant, Orin Beckley, ancestors of Mrs. 
Caroline B. Sheppard of New York City; Cbloe, wife of tbe 
merchant, Elisha Peck ; Lucy, wife of Frederic Hinsdale, mer- 
chant; Julia, wife of Lyman Dunbar; Sarah, married first to 
Michael Stocking, second to tbe Rev. Theron Osborn ; Lois M., 
married first to Calvin Wincbell, second, February 26, 1830, 
to Dr. Caleb H. Austin. 

Sbubael Pattison's shop was moved about 1830 over to tbe 
Captain Samuel Hart corner and was made into the dwelling 
house now owned by Leonard C. Hubbard. 

Should a resident of Worthington Street tell a man who lives 
on Hart Street that "it is damp there," be will reply, "My cellar 
is dryer than yours. If it were filled to-night with water, it 
would all disappear before morning." There is a porous, sandy 
subsoil all along that highway, which acts as natural drainage. 



It has been said that a pupil of Miss Porter's school at 
Farmington may be known by the way she enters a room. 
Sixty or seventy years ago there was a class of young ladies 
in Berlin, of superior qualities of mind, and of distinctive bear- 
ing, tbe latter the result of a course of training at Troy Sem- 
inary, under Mrs. Emma Hart Willard,* who seemed to have 
the faculty to impart to her pupils somewhat of her own dignity 
of manner. 

Mrs. Willard was anxious that all the girls in her large circle 
of relatives should have a chance to obtain an education, and 
she invited them to come to Troy, at her own expense. Twelve 

* It is well known that Mrs. Willard was educated at the old Berlin 
Academy. Cf. "Memories of Berlin's Earlier Schools," an historical 
address, delivered by Miss Alice Norton at the Old Home Day exercises, 
in the Congregational Church, Berlin, Sept. 20th, 1905. (Berlin News, 
Nov. 2, 1905.) This address gives an account of Mrs. Willard's experiences 
in the academy. 



L 



76 HISTOEY OF BEELIX 

or more of her nieces and grandnieces, who lived in Berlin 
village, with a few others, in whom she became interested, 
accepted her generous offer. Among these were three daughters 
and three granddaughters of her brother Jesse Hart ; Julia and 
Sarah Hart, daughters of Freedom Hart; Sarah and Susan 
Hinsdale, daughters of Frederick Hinsdale; Harriet Hart, 
daughter of George Hart; Jane and Laura Barnes, daughters 
of Blakeslee Barnes, and Frances Durand. 

Mrs. Emily Galpin Bacon, mother of Attorney C. E. Bacon 
of Middletown, was bom in the house that stood across the way 
from the Dr. Brandegee place. She has never forgotten how she 
longed to go to Troy with the rest of the girls. Her father was 
dead, Mrs. Willard did not know of her desire, and she could 
not go. 

Most of these Berlin girls were fitted for teachers in schools, 
or for governesses. Some went South, whence not all returned 
single; others remained as assistants in the seminary, 

Harriet Hart, who afterwards married N^athaniel Dickinson, 
taught in two of the Kensington schools, and in the Center dis- 
trict of Worthington, and in Xew York State. 

Susan Hinsdale, whose parents lived in the Captain Samuel 
Hart place, had a select school in the Evelyn Peck shop, across 
the way from her home, which was attended by children from 
"up street." 

An old woman used to go to the "Seminary" with a basket on 
her arm, filled with candy and cakes, which she sold to the girls, 
in exchange for their cast-off clothing, and it was said that Jane 
Barnes ate so much candy that she ruined her health. She died 
September 1, 1834, at the age of eighteen. When her mother 
went for her, to bring her home, she begged to be taken to 
Xiagara, that she might see the Falls before she died, and her 
request was granted. 

Jane Porter Hart, now Mrs. William Dodd of Cincinnati, 
taught music and drawing at the seminary. 

Miss Emily Treat Wilcox, now of Westfield, a granddaughter 
of Mrs. Willard's sister Lydia, was educated at Troy Seminary 



THE HART FAMILIES 77 

which she afterward conducted for a number of years, as a day 
school. 

Miss Catherine R. Churchill, whose early home was in New 
York City, was sent "away to school" to Troy. Miss Sarah 
Churchill remembers seeing Mrs. Willard at a party in New 
York, given by the Scudders, as she sat, like a queen, with 
her turban on her head, surrounded by a group of scientific 
men, like Davies, the mathematician, while the young people 
looked on from a distance. 

Sometime during the ministry of the Rev. Wilder Smith, 
18G2-1866, Mrs. Willard visited the sisters, Mrs. Mindwell Hart 
and Mrs. Sophia Camp, who lived opposite the academy. Mr. 
and Mrs. Smith were invited to meet Mrs, Willard at tea. Mr. 
Smith, on his way home, remarked, "What eyes ; she looks right 
through you." 

The popularity of Mrs. Willard's school was so great that 
pupils came to her from all parts of the United States, from 
Canada, and even from the West Indies. In 1838, she resigned 
her charge to her son, John Willard, and his wife, in order that 
she might travel abroad, and have more time to give to her liter- 
ary labors. She died in Troy, April 15, 1870, aged eighty-three 
years. 

Almira Hart, known as Mrs. Phelps, was the seventeenth 
child of Captain Samuel Hart. Born in 1793, she was six 
years younger than her sister, Mrs. Willard, who for three years 
was her teacher, in the schools of Berlin. 

The Rev. W. W. Woodworth, writing of her says : 

At the age of nineteen she taught a school in her father's house, 
and not long after took charge of an academy at Sandy Hill, New 
York. In 1817 she was married to Simeon Lincoln, of New Britain, 
then editor of a literary paper, published in Hartford. He died in 
1823, and in 1831 she was married to the Hon. John Phelps, of Ver- 
mont, an eminent jurist and statesman ... In 1841 she was 
invited by the Bishop of Maryland and tlie trustees of the Patapsco 
Institute, to "found a Church school for girls." Here she continued 
fifteen years, doing, as her sister says, "her great and crowning edu- 
cational work." Her husband died in 1849. She died in Baltimore 



78 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

in 1884, at the age of 91. She published many books for students 
in the various departments of natural science, the best kno\\Ti of 
which is her work on botany, published in 1829, while she was vice- 
principal of the Troy Seminary. 

Before the publication of Mrs. Lincoln's "Lectures on Botany," 
the science had been little studied in schools. Her work of 
about 500 pages met a quick demand and in a little more than 
three years nearly 10,000 copies had been. sold. It gave a com- 
fortable income to Mrs. Lincoln, and made her publishers rich. 
For many years it was a standard text book on the subject of 
botany in colleges and high schools throughout the country. It 
was written in an attractive style, the unavoidable scientific 
terms, which so often discourage a pupil, were interspersed 
with interesting remarks relative to the history and uses of 
plants, with occasional quotations from the poets. For instance 
under class "Pentrandia" we read : 

The garden violet, viola tri-color, has a variety of common names, 
as pansy, hearts-ease, etc. Pansy is a corruption of the French 
■pensee, a thought; thus Shakespeare, in the character of Ophelia, 
says: 

There's rosemary — that's for remembrance. 

And these are pansies — 

That's for thought. 

In 1833, ]\Irs. Lincoln, then Mrs. Phelps, published a small 
botany for children. In spite of its long, hard words, such as 
"helminthology" and ''infundibuliformis," the "Botany for 
Beginners" found a ready field. In six months the first edition 
was exhausted and the second sold as quickly. In 184Y a third 
edition, revised and improved with "many useful remarks inter- 
spersed throughout the work," was introduced in the common 
schools. 

One of the sweetest memories of a lifelong resident of this 
village is of a Saturday afternoon (school kept Saturday morn- 
ing then) , nigh on to sixty years ago, over on the "Ledge," back 
of the old Bosworth place, sitting on a mossy bank, where the 
wind flowers grew, and partridge berries, and fragrant pipsis- 



THE HART FAMILIES 79 

sewa. There, teacher gathered about her knee, her class of 
little girls, who had begun to study the new botany, and taught 
thcni to name the parts of the flowers, which they held in their 
hands. One of that class placed a mark in the index of her 
book, against all the flowers she learned to know. There are 126 
marks there, thanks to Mrs. Lincoln Phelps and to "Teacher." 

Mrs. Willard and Mrs. Phelps both retained a lifelong interest 
in their native town. Both expressed a desire that the street 
on which they were born could be called "Hart Street." 



CHAPTER IV. 

Daniel Wilcox, Pioneer Settler of Savage Hill, Xorthwest 
Division of Middletown, and His Family. 

In treating this subject I shall take the liberty of going back- 
ward, or forward or sideways at my pleasure. 

Daniel Wilcox was fourth in descent from John Wilcox, 
original proprietor of Hartford, 1639. The name of John's 
wife was Mary, and their home was on a part of what is now 
Bushnell Park. Their children were John, Sarah, and Ann. 
Sarah was married to John Bidwell of Hartford. Ann, born 
about 1616, married John Hall and settled in Middletown. 

John Wilcox, Sr., was chosen surveyor of lands 1643, 1644, 
and Townsman or Selectman 1650. The office of Selectman 
in early times was one of honor, and it carried much responsi- 
bility. 

John W^ilcox's life in this new country was short. He died 
October 1, 1651. Our knowledge of his circumstances must 
come mostly from his will dated July 24, 1651. 

Charles J. Hoadly, formerly State Librarian, told me that 
John Wilcox's will was the first probated in the colony. He 
had a new house and an old house, so called. He had horses, 
cows, oxen, swine, fowls, bees, fields of grain, of hemp, and of 
flax. He had silver and wamppeage and a pew, a man servant 
and a maid servant. 

Besides other provisions for his wife Mary, he gives her the 
old house to live in, with the use of his furniture and half the 
fruit of his two orchards. She is to have the pew, a colt and 
the use of a horse for two years with bridle and pannell to ride 
to Windsor, to Wethersfield, to Hartford or to the Sermon. 

We cannot connect John Wilcox with the English Wilcoxes ; 
neither do we know the family name of his wife, Mary. It is 
my theory that she had a clearing out time when she moved from 



DANIEL WILCOX 81 

the new house after John's death and that like some neat house- 
keepers of the present day she destroyed all the family records. 

The wife of one of my uncles, in a spasm of housecleaning, 
threw into the fire their family tree, prepared at considerable 
expense by a professional genealogist. 

Charles N. Camp, genealogist of New Haven, is authority for 
the statement that John Wilcox, Senior, served in the Pequot 
War. (See Colonial Year Book, page 811.) 

It is probable that John Wilcox was buried in the Center 
Church burying yard at Hartford where stands a granite 
shaft on which his name appears with those of a hundred 
founders of the Town inscribed thereon. 

Mary survived her husband seventeen years and died in 1668. 
In her will, dated October 4, 1666, about two years before her 
death, she gives to "Cosin" Sara Long two pewter platters, and 
to daughter "An" Haul forty shillings and ''my best feather 
pillow." All the rest of her estate after payment of debts and 
her comly funeral expenses she gives to son-in-law John Bidwell. 

Toward the last on account of weakness she had been unable 
to occupy the "old house" and orchards, and according to a 
provision of her husband's will her son John was ordered by 
Court to pay her six pounds a year. She did not mention 
son John in her will. It would have been natural that she 
should have gone to spend her last days with daughter Sarah 
Bidwell (variously spelled Biddle, Bidoll) who lived in Hart- 
ford, the other children being away at Middletown, and possibly 
there was undue influence, as they, who are disinherited, say. 



John Wilcox, 2d, eldest child of John, Senior, and his wife 
Mary, bom in England, came to America with his father. He 
received a gi*ant of land at Middletown before 1653, but instead 
of settling there at once, he went to Dorchester, was there in 
1654, whereupon the General Court passed a vote to compel him 
to occupy his land or to find a substitute. He returned to 
Middletown and purchased the homesteads of Joseph Smith 
and Matthias Treat. These he sold, and purchased elsewhere 
6 



82 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

before JSTovember 1, 1665. He married September 17, 1646, 
five years before his father died, Sarah, eldest daughter of 
William Wadsworth of Hartford. Of this marriage, one child, 
Sarah, was born, October 3, 1648. Sarah, the mother, died that 
same year, probably when little Sarah was born. From the 
dates given she could not have died earlier than October 3, 
1648-9, and the next January (January 18, 1649-50) John 
married, second, Katharine Stoughton, daughter of Thomas 
Stoughton of Windsor (Thomas Stoughton, called "The 
Ancient," built the stone fort still standing at Windsor, page 
T42, "Upper Houses," Charles Collard Adams), but then there 
was the motherless little one and so we will excuse his haste. 
Katharine took such good care of Sarah Wadsworth's baby that 
she thrived and grew to womanhood and became the wife of 
David Ensign, who was an original member of the first church 
of West Hartford, 1713. Katharine, however, did not succeed 
as well with her own children. According to Charles Collard 
Adams, John, Thomas and Mary, her first three children, died 
young; only Israel, born June 19, 1656, and Samuel, born 
I*^ovember 9, 1658, came to maturity. 

Katharine Stoughton, the mother, died, and John married, 
third, Widow Mary Farnsworth, alias Long of Dorchester, 
meaning that her first husband's name was Long. There were 
no Wilcox children of this marriage. Mary (Long) Farnsworth 
Wilcox died 1671, before September 7. In her will, dated 
May 3, 1671, she mentions her son Joseph Long and his wife 
Sarah, and her son Samuel Farnsworth, not then of age. Mary 
Farnsworth was a dressy body. She gives to Mary Wilcox her 
white "wascoat" and her red darning coat. To her daughter- 
in-law Sarah she gives a feather bed and boulster "already in her 
house at Hartford" and her "cloath wascoat with the great silver 
lace and a petty coate likewise." 

John was now well along in years, but although thrice 
bereaved he was not utterly discouraged. He soon began to 
look about and before the end of the year he took to himself as 
wife Esther Cornwall, daughter of William Cornwall of Middle- 
town, a girl just out of her teens, two years younger than his 



DANIEL WILCOX 83 

daughter Sarah Ensign. Esther has three ways of spelling her 
name, besides Esther it is recorded as Hester and Easter — an 
imcommonly pretty name — the latter — for a girl. 

Three children were born to John Wilcox and Esther Corn- 
wall, Ephraim, Esther and Mary. After five years of wedded 
life with Esther, John Wilcox died. May 24, 1676. Esther 
survived him fifty-seven years. She married, second, John 
Stow of Middletown and died May, 1733, aged eighty-three 
years. 

Where, pray tell, would have been the Wilcox families of 
Westfield, Middletown and of Meriden, had it not been for this 
marriage of John Wilcox with Esther Cornwall. iSTearly all of 
them come from their son Ephraim. 

I was interested in looking up these families to find that Mr. 
Arthur Boardman, Treasurer of the Cromwell Dime Savings 
Bank, Town Clerk, Town Treasurer, Deacon, Trustee, member 
and liberal supporter of the Baptist Church of Cromwell, traces 
back to this same Ephraim, son of Esther Cornwall and John 
Wilcox, Jr. 



Israel Wilcox, son of John Wilcox, Jr., and his second wife, 
Katharine Stoughton, born June 19, 1656, married March 28, 
1678, Sarah Savage, daughter of Sergeant John Savage and 
Elizabeth D'Aubin, his wife, of Middletown. 

In less than twelve years after their marriage Israel died, 
December 20, 1789, aged thirty-three years. His wife, Sarah, 
then thirty-one years old, was left with five young children, 
whose names were Israel, John, Samuel, Thomas and Sarah. 
Israel, just coming of the age of ten years, and Sarah, the baby, 
seven weeks old. Sarah, the mother, lived a widow thirty-four 
years, and died February 8, 1824. Her five children signed 
an agreement for the settlement of her estate in which they 
referred to her as "our honored mother." 

Sarah, the daughter, signed the document as Sarah Riley, 
followed by Jonathan Eiley. (See page 544, vol. 11, History of 
Wethersfield. ) 



84 HISTOKY OF BERLIN 

Josiah Willcox, brother of Daniel, settled out Avon way. 
Mrs. Aspinwall comes from both Daniel and Josiah. 

Samuel, third son of Israel Wilcox and Sarah Savage, his 
wife, born September 26, 1695, married March 3, 1714, 
HannaJi Sage, daughter of John Sage and Hannah Starr, his 
wife, born December 21, 1694. 

Their children were Daniel (announced as the subject of this 
sketch), born December 31, 1715, Josiah, Hannah, Rachel and 
Elizabeth. Samuel, the father, died January 19, 1727, aged 
forty-one years. In his will he gave to his dearly beloved wife 
the use of all his improved lands and of his house and barn 
during her widowhood, but in case she should marry before 
Daniel, now fourteen, should come to the age of twenty-one 
then she was to have only one-half of the property specified, and 
Daniel was to have the other half. Hannah was only thirty-two 
when left a widow. Probably she found the care of the farm 
and the stock and the buildings, not to speak of the children, 
too great a burden and that she felt the need of someone to 
help her. At any rate it was not long before she was married 
to Malechi Lewis and he was installed on the place. Daniel 
now set up his claim, as by the terms of his father's will, to one- 
half of the property, "in order that he might improve it." 
Whether it was the fault of Malechi or Hannah we are not 
informed, but Daniel had to go to law for his rights. The year 
he came to his majority he appeared before the Court of Probate, 
held at Hartford, March 22, 1737, and laid his case before that 
body. 

He declared that his mother had hitherto refused or neglected 
to divide with him, although often requested. Whereupon the 
Court appointed Messrs. Jabes Hamlin, Thomas Johnson and 
Samuel Shephard to distribute the estate according to the will, 
giving notice to the said Hannah Lewis and her husband, 
Malechi Lewis, first, of the time they shall proceed on the 
service aforesaid. 



85 

DANIEL WILCOX 

From Cromwell Graveyard 

Here 

Lieth tlie 
Body of 

Samuell Willcocks 
who departed this 
life January the 
19, 1728, in the 43d 
year of his age. 

Here lies Interred 

the Body of Mrs. 

Hannah Lewis 

formerly Kelict 

of Mr. Samuel 

Willcox but 

died wife of 

Mr. Malaehi 

Lewis on Jan • 

ye 22, 1750 

In the 56 yr of her age. 

Somehow when these young widows, even when they are our 
own grandmothers, marry and go out from the family they seem 
lost to us, but we do not want to drop grandmother Hannah 
Sao-e " alias "Lewis." It is through her that we trace back to 
Dr" Thomas Starr, who was a surgeon of the Colonial forces 
in the war with the Pequots. He received his aj)pomtment 
Mav 17 1637. (Col. War Year Book, page 1 or 17.) 

In 1785 the :NTorth West Division of Middletown (so called) 
was set off to form a part of the town of Berlin, incorporated 

that year. . , ^ 

We do not know exactly when Daniel Wilcox settled on Savage 
Hill The lots laid out to the original proprietors were long 
narrow strips of land that came all the way over to Stoney 
Swamp and it is probable that Daniel inherited from his 
father, Samuel, land in North West Division. He began to buy 



86 HISTORY OF BERLIN" 

land there in 1735, when he was twenty years old, pieces bounded 
partly on his own land. There was a story that when he left 
home, to come through an unbroken wilderness and take up his 
abode in the Third Division, prayers were offered in the log- 
cabin meeting house in Upper Houses, for his safety. If this 
story is true, he must have come as early as 1T35. A new meet- 
ing house, not of logs, was built in Upper Houses in 1735. 
He purchased here and there a few acres at a time until he had 
a fine farm one mile square in extent. 

His house, a large, brown, frame building, stood on the west 
side of the way on Savage Hill next north of what is now called 
Bowers corner, and opposite the barn of Elmer Dyer. It was 
torn down before my remembrance. At one time it was used 
as a schoolhouse, and once a woman lived there who made very 
fine linen. Large fields of flax were grown, and the flax, at 
maturity, was left for months to decay on the gi'ound. 

Daniel Wilcox, bom 1715, Dec. 31st, died July 29, 1789. 

Married March 16, 1738 
Sarah White, bom April 22, 1716, died June 28, 1807. 

Sarah White was a descendant of John White, who sailed 
from London in the ship Lion, June 22, 1632 ; arrived at 
Boston September 16; settled first in Cambridge; sold land 
there before 1636 ; was an original proprietor at Hartford, 
1639. His house, on what is now Governor Street, stood where 
the shadow of the Charter Oak fell upon it at sunset. He was 
a preaching Elder in Thomas Hooker's church. 

ISTathaniel White, born about 1629, came from England with 
his father, John White, when five years old. He was one of the 
original proprietors of Middletown, 1650-51, where he held a 
high position. In 1659 he was elected to the Great General 
Court, and from 1661 to 1710 he was chosen a member of the 
Colonial Legislature eighty-five times. He was eighty-two years 
old when last elected. Legislators were at that day chosen twice 
a year. Nathaniel White was Captain of the first "Traine 
Band" of Middletown. This record would make his descend- 
ants eligible to the Society of Colonial Dames. 



DANIEL WILCOX 



87 



In his will, probated October 1, 1711, Nathaniel White gave 
one-quarter part of his share of the undivided lands for the 
benefit of the public schools of Middletown forever. In 1741 
the land was sold and the proceeds invested. When Cromwell 
was set off from Middletown in 1851, it received its share of the 
fund. In 1902, when the fine new public schoolhouse of Crom- 
well was opened, by unanimous vote it was named "The 
]^athaniel White Public School." 



To Daniel Wilcox and his wife, Sarah White, were born 
thirteen children, seven sons and six daughters. 

Sons Daughters 

Daniel Lois 

David Sarah 

Stephen Hepzibah 

Josiah Huldah 

Samuel Olive 

Isaac Patience 
Jacob 

Sarah, the mother, became very stout as she advanced in 
years, so that she was not active. She apologized to her chil- 
dren, saying, ''I do not work, but I save your father a great deal 
by my good management." Many of her descendants seem to 
have inherited her physique. 

In the spring of 1762 England, then engaged in war with 
Spain, sent an armament against the Spanish West Indies. 
Two Connecticut Colonial Regiments were ordered to join the 
expedition and assist in the attack against Havana. 

David Wilcox, second of the sons of Daniel, then in his nine- 
teenth year, enlisted March 17, 1762, in the 4th Company; 
Captain, John Patterson of the 1st Regiment; Col. Phineas 
L;>Tnan of Suffield, Commander. 

This 4th Company numbered, officers and men, ninety-eight. 
Ten never joined. Two deserted. 

They arrived at Cuba June 17 where, in the intense heat, 
lacking water, they worked two months under unsufferable pri- 
vations. Some of the soldiers dropped dead from thirst, heat, 



88 HISTOET OF BEBLiy 

and fatigue. In less than a month half the troops were dead 
or sick. Of the Ifew England privates scarcely any returned. 

Such as were not killed in the service were generally swept 
away by the great mortality that prevailed. 

Of Captain John Patterson's Company twenty-nine died 
between September 5 and November 30. He himself died 
at Havana September 5, 1762, at fifty-four years, a victim of 
the yellow fever. 

David Willcocks died at Havana October 1, 1762. His name 
appears on the payroll of the 1st Connecticut Regiment, 4th 
Company. Xathaniel Willcocks, his cousin^ who enlisted the 
same day, and in the same Company with David, died 
November 17. 

Major John Patterson, son of James of Wethersfield, held a 
Captain's Commission under King George III, and was the first 
deacon of the First Church of Xew Britain. On May 11, 17.53, 
being called of God to assist his country and mindful as he 
expressed it of the dangers of martial life, he made his will in 
which he directed his wife Ruth (Bird) to give their son John 
a college education. John, the son, graduated from Yale in 
1762. He removed to Binghamton, X. Y., was a lawyer, and 
was Brigadier-General in the Revolutionary War. 

Havana surrendered August 13, 1762. In the treaty of 
Paris, signed February 10, 1763, Great Britain restored to 
Spain all its conquests in the West Indies in return for Flor- 
ida — all that Spain owned on the Continent of Xorth America 
southeast of the Mississippi. At the time of the English and 
French War, when the call of alarm came for the relief of Fort 
William Henry, on the north shore of Lake George, Daniel 
Wilcox, Sr., enlisted as corporal in the Company of Captain 
Josiah Lee of Farmington, 6th Connecticut Regiment. Daniel 
Wilcox, Jr., just come to the age of sixteen, with other lads, 
went along to lead pack horses and to bring back other horses. 
The Fort, after a gallant defense of six days, was compelled to 
surrender to the superior force of French and Indian troops, 
and Daniel Wilcox returned after a service of eight days. 
Daniel, the son, was credited with seven days. 



DANIEL WILCOX 89 

Captain Josiah Lee was chosen deacon of the First Church of 
Xew Britain to take the place of Deacon Patterson, who died in 
1762 at Havana. 

The old story that Daniel TVilcox gave to each of his thirteen 
children a farm on which he built a house needs to be modified. 
We have seen that David died at Havana. Isaac, born August 
14, 1755, enlisted in the Revolutionary War. He was taken 
sick at Boston and was brought home, where he died November 
23, 1775, at the age of twenty years. His gi'ave is in Maple 
Cemetery at Berlin. 

Olive, bom October 16, 1751, died Xovember 1, 1771, the 
dav she was to have been married to a Mr. Hart of Xew Britain. 



Daniel Wilcox, Jr., bom Xovember IT, 17-il. 

Married September 22, 1763, at the age of 22 years, Susannah 
Porter of East Hartford. 

Children : Nathaniel, bom August 10, 1764. 

Susannah, bom May 1, 1766, married Richard Beckley. 
David, bom December 6, 1768. 
Susannah, the wife, died Xovember 1.3th, 1769, in the 28th year 
of her age. Grave in Maple Cemetery. 



Daniel. Jr.. married 2d November 7, 1771, Mercy Gibson. 
Children : Joseph, bom August 4, 1772, died February 26, 1773. 

Daniel, 3d, bom October 26, 1774. 
Daniel Willcocks, Jr., received to Chiirch September 2, 1764. 

Four months after Daniel, Jr., married, his father gave him 
six acres of land, deed dated January 10, 1764, on which to 
build a house, bounded north by his own land (Daniel, Sr.'s), 
east on highway, south on highway now known as Bower's 
Corner. Daniel Wilcox enlisted in the Revolutionary Army 
and died at Roxbury April 10, 1776. 

On page 440, Xew England Register for 1900, appears the 
following communication from Daniel W. Fowler of Chicago : 

I send you copies of two letters written by Daniel Wilcox, Jr., 
from Middletown, Conn., who was at the defence of Boston in the 
years 1775 and 6, and who died in the latter year, and was, it is 



90 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

stated, buried in the old cemetery in Eoxbury. I have seen the 
pocketbook, which he had in his possession at his death, so it was 
claimed, and I have now one piece of Continental money, which 
says it is good for five Spanish Milled dollars, which was found in 
that purse at the time of his decease. 

The Middletown ISTorth Society, whicli had the ordering of 
school affairs, voted November 7, 1748, that a school should be 
kept the whole year — ten months in the Society's schoolhouse, 
and two months in the j^orthwest Quarter at the house of John 
Savage. 

These letters of Daniel, written from Roxburj^, of which I 
have copies, show him to be a loyal soldier, thoughtful of his 
comrades ; a loving son, husband and father ; but the spelling 
and the grammar ! ! However, what could be expected in the 
wilderness with school only two months in the year. He held 
the office of sergeant. The name of Daniel Wilcox, Jr., does not 
appear in Connecticut Men of the Revolution. 

After the death of Daniel Willcocks, his widow, Mercy Gib- 
son, married John (?) Parsons and removed to Landersfield, 
Berkshire County, Mass., with three Wilcox children. 

At the time of the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the 
Worthington church, the Rev. E. G. Beckwith, then of Water- 
bury, gave an address, vaguely remembered after thirty-seven 
years as very interesting, ISTo copy of it can now be found. 
Mr. Beckwith comes from one of the Wilcox sons, taken by 
Mercy Gibson Wilcox Parsons to Landersfield. 

His grandfather on his mother's side was a Daniel Wilcox, 
grandson of the Revolutionary soldier and the fourth in direct 
line to bear the name. It was Mr. Beckwith who told about 
prayers being offered in the log cabin meeting house at Middle- 
town for Daniel's safety in the wilderness. 

Mr. Beckwith later went to Hawaii. Miss Ruth Galpin 
having occasion to write to him there asked if he had a copy of 
that historical paper. He replied May 9, 1897, that he thought 
it was not a paper at all, but a bit of an off-hand talk — that he 
had no such paper in his possession and never had published 
any. He said his Revolutionary ancestor was with the army 



DANIEL WILCOX 91 

that invested General Gac:e at Boston and died at Roxbnrj 
during the siege. He said he had a copy of a letter written by 
him while there, one of several that were in his grandfather 
Daniel's possession in his boyhood. 

Miss Galpin thinks she has seen a notice of Mr. Beckwith's 
death in the Congregationalist. 

While in Berlin Mr. Beckwith gave Deacon Alfred jSTorth an 
account of the Massachusetts branch of the family, which should 
have been written in black and white. Trusted to memory, it 
is now lost. 

The Rev. William Henry Willcox of Maiden, Mass., and Rev. 
G. B. Willcox of Chicago Theological Seminary came from this 
same Wilcox stock. 

W. H. Willcox was a trustee of Wellesley College. It is said 
that he influenced Mrs. Stone to give the money to build Stone 
Hall at Wellesley, and also to give large sums to other educa- 
tional institutions. Mrs. Stone endowed a professorship of 
Natural Science at Hamilton College on condition that her 
niece's husband, Professor A. P. Kelsey, should be the first 
incumbent. Mrs. Kelsey was glad to have her aunt endow that 
professorship, but she was bitter toward Mr. Wilcox because she 
felt he had such strong influence over Mrs. Stone and got her to 
will so much of her money to institutions. Mrs. Kelsey and 
her sister were Mrs. Stone's heirs, and of course they wanted 
all they could get. (L. D. IST. Reed.) 

Miss Gertrude M. Willcox, daughter of Prof. G. B. Willcox 
of Chicago, went out as a missionary to Kobe, Japan, in 1898. 
In Life and Light of !N'ovember, 1899, page 528, is a letter 
written by Mrs. Dr. Davis to Mrs. G. B. Willcox giving a 
description of the interesting wedding of Miss Willcox to Mr. 
Weakley of the Methodist Mission. 

(Letter in Life and Light, Feb. 3, 1899.) 

July 14, 1899. 
Weddixg of Miss Gertrude Willcox, by Mrs. Dr. Davis. 
The storm had cleared the atmosphere and cooled it a little, too, 
and everything outwardly went oflf just as it should. To the music 



951 HISTOKT OF BilEI-nf 

Off liie oigaii oat on the la\rn the proceseioA canae down the steps 
from the ^^^Kime VaiWing." led by die two xish^s. Three tiny little 
giris followed, hand in hand, and dten ei^t moie girls in ooupls^ 

They went slowly and without a mistake to the ri^t place. Of 
couise they weie all dressed in white, with bhie rihbfflts and sashes" 
of nearly ihe san^ shade, and they carried bouquets of white daisies 
and siTiall chiTsantbeinnnie. 

They were so fresh and dainty and pret;:y. 

Thea last came yoiur dan^ter dressed in the pret^, old fashioned 
gown whidi her mother had worn so Itmg ago. I looked at h^ for 
yon. and wished I might hare changed idac^ for awhUe;. On her 
dioalder was a tiny binu^ of fors-et-me-nots, pinned on with a 
dai^ pin. showing throngb ho' veiL That was fastened wi^ orange 
blossoms. She carried a bon^ of roses and maideii hair f eras. Mr. 
Weakley and Mr. Davis stood waiting for h^. and four goitiexnen 
stood in front of the bridal eoople. The United States Consul, Mr. 
D^naree, Mr. Curtis, who married them and Mr. Daris. Mr. 
Donaree read. Mr. Davis le^l in prsyer. All wa« touched wbesi 
he said he would o5er Preiessc-r Willeox's prayer. The bridal coaple 
weae moved by it. and iheirs were not die only eyes that woie wet 
witiL teazs at this prayer fnnn ov^a the ^sa. Theai Mr. Curtis went 
dxTMi^ the service and pronounced dian husband and wife. Frcan 
beginning to end it was intpjesgive and beautifuL 

Rev. W. C. Wilcox wenfom to Umgori. Xatal. with his wife 
Ida in ISSl. Xo mention is made of him after 190V. 

In the setil«nent of the estate a£ Daniel Wilcox. Jr.. one-lii-f 
the house was set to the widow and the place was traiLsierrtd 
frcHn time to time subject to die rigjits of Merev Parsons. 

Daniel's brodier Jacob bon^t oat the heirs, and in 1797 the 
property was sold to the Crofoot family, Wrinen on the 
chimney piece of the house may be seen to-day "Samuel and 
Mary Crofoot 17-7 — ^** the dord ngnre illegible. 

By deed of date Jannary 22, 1S22. Jacob Wilcox having 
again an interest in the plac-e gave a qnit claim to William 
Bowers, and now for ninety years that comer has been occupied 
by Captain William Bowers and his deseoidants. In early 
days it was a puWic hoese. the road leading over diose hills 
being the Xew Haven and Hartford postn>ad before the Hart- 
ford and Xew Haven turnpike was opened. 



DANIEL WILCOX 93 

Lois Wilcox, eldest of the six daughters of Daniel Wilcox, 
born June 14, 1738, died August 18, 1805. Married September 
14, 1756, Solomon-* Sage, born 1737 (Captain David,^ John,- 
David^. 

Children (Copied from Middletown Town Record) : 

Grace, born 1757. ( Mindwell, boni 1767. 

Solomon, bom 1759. ( Oliver, bom 1767. 

Hozea, born 1761. Lois, bom 1771. 

j Mabel, bom 1763. Joseph or Joshua, born 1772. 

1 Calvin, born 1763. Isaac, bom 1775. 

Hozea, died in Army, Luther, bom 1778. 
West Point. 



We do not find from town records that Daniel Wilcox made 
gifts of houses or lands to any of his daughters. Solomon Sage, 
Sr., was a large land holder in his own right. 

Lois Wilcox and Solomon Sage were taken into the com- 
munion of the Kensington church May 29, 1768. 

The distinction of this family seems to lie in their large 
households. Captain Oliver Sage, son of Solomon and Lois 
Sage, had sixteen children, eleven sons and five daughters. 
There were three pairs of twins. So far as known not a soul 
remains in this vicinity to represent this branch of the Sage 
family. 

Jacob Wilcox, youngest son of Daniel and Sarah Wilcox, bom 
in Berlin, June 21, 1758, died at the house of his daughter, 
Mrs. Elizabeth Porter, in Beckley Quarter, ]Srovember 3, 1841, 
aged eighty-three years, four months and thirteen days. 

He married, June 7, 1780, Rachel Porter, born in East Hart- 
ford, July 5, 1758 ; died March 15, 1847, at the house of her 
son I^orris in jN^ew Haven, age eighty-eight years, eight months 
and ten days, both buried in East Berlin. 

1. Alvin, bom 1773, died August 17, 1870. 

2. Norman. 

3. Orrin. 

4. Cyprian, bom September 22, 1795; died Ithaca, N. Y., Febru- 

ary 24, 1875. 



94 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

5. Norris, married March 3, 1822, Harriet Hart, daughter of Jesse. 

6. Jacob. 

7. Albert. 

8. Betsey. 

9. Lucetta. 

Jacob Wilcox and Rachel Porter married Jnne 7, 1780. 

J^orris Wilcox, fifth of the seven sons of Jacob Wilcox, mar- 
ried Harriet Hart, second daughter of Jesse Hart, brother of 
Emma Hart Willard. He kept the hotel at Boston Corners, 
so called, on Berem Street, for a time; was postmaster, with 
office in Freedom Hart's comb shop, and removed to New Haven, 
where he became United States Collector of that port. His son 
William was a professor of mathematics in the l^aval Academy 
at Annapolis. 

ISTorris Wilcox was a large, portly, handsome man, and his 
daughter Katharine was a woman of remarkable beauty of per- 
son and character. She married a Smith and lived in Phila- 
delphia. Her daughter, Jessie Wilcox Smith, is the well-known 
illustrator of magazines. 

John Henry Wilcox, Mus.D., 1827-1875, of Boston, grandson 
of Jacob Willcox, son of Jacob Willcox, Jr., and Catharine 
Shellman, his wife, of Savannah, Ga., was considered the finest 
organist in the country. When new organs were to be dedicated 
it was thought that no one could show them off quite as well as 
he. Once he was called to assist in the dedication services of 
a fine new organ in a Philadelphia church where there was a 
large chorus choir, which he could not make sing to his liking, 
and his sarcastic remarks were not soon forgotten. 

We have in our church hymn book two tunes written by John 
William Willcox, "Faban and Jesu," p. 10; "Boni Pastor," 
p. 452. 

Jacob Willcox, Sr., was very deaf in his old age. Elisha 
Cheney, his nephew by marriage, lived on the southwest corner 
opposite the Bowers place. Uncle Jacob would go over to the 
Cheney house and ask to have brother Cheney come outside, 
he wanted to have some privacy with him. They would go 
out into the road and then Jacob would shout loud enough to 



DANIEL WILCOX 95 

be heard half a mile. The Cheney girls thought it great fun 
to hear him. 

Uncle Jacob, "Jeckup," so pronounced in his day, raised 
a lot of turkeys and Mr. Cheney tried to raise grain. When 
he complained that the turkeys destroyed his grain, Uncle 
Jacob would say: ''The earth is the Lord's and the fulness 
thereof,' " and that was all the satisfaction he would give. 
Jacob Wilcox's place was sold by his son jSTorris to William 
Dyer of Woodbridge, forty-four acres with buildings, price 
$4,500. (Vol. 15, page 373, New Britain Eecords.) 

Wallace Wilcox, son of Alvin, eldest son of Jacob Wilcox, 
was a teacher and a very successful head of a boys' school in 
Stamford for years. 

Cyprian P. Wilcox, son of Cyprian, son of Jacob, was a pro- 
fessor of modern languages, and had, before the war, a school 
for languages at Geneva, Switzerland. Later he came home and 
was in the University of Georgia till his death. 

Hepzibah Wilcox, fifth child, third daughter, of Daniel Wil- 
cox and Sarah White, his wife, born January 31, 1745, died 
February 19, 1821; married September 23, 1763, David 
Beckley, born Februar}' 17, 1742, died jSTovember 19, 1798. 

CHILDREN 

David, born March 31, 1765. 

Silas, born September 28, 1766. 

Caroline. 

Joseph. 

Hepzibah. 

Luther. 

Joseph, born November 12, 1775. 

David (1), Lt. Joseph (2), Nathaniel (3), Sgt. Eichard (4). 

David Beckley and his wife Hepzibah Wilcox set up house- 
keeping in the old red Beckley house built by the father of 
David, Lt. Joseph Beckley. (No need for Daniel Wilcox to 
give Hepzibah a house.) 



96 HISTOKY OF BERLIN 

Lt. Joseph Beckley, born 1695, grandson of Richard, the 
settler, married October 23, 1723, Mary Judd (deceased of 
John North of Far) who was the mother of his seventeen 
children. She died April 16, 1750, aged forty-eight years. 

I read somewhere the latter statement, but cannot now give 
the reference and have not the date. This Joseph Beckley 
received permission to build his house on condition that he 
would keep a public house. He was licensed as a taverner, 
1733, 34, 42. 

Dr. Horatio Gridley in his history stated that a public house 
was kept there by the descendants of Richard Beckley for 
seventy-eight years in succession and that it was the first inn 
between Hartford and ITew Haven. 

Inn-keepers of those days were of the best and most respected 
families ; they often held positions of trust as town officers. 

Miss Abigail Pattison told me that Hepzibah Wilcox was 
renowned for her goodness and kindness of heart. She adopted 
a son of Dr. Austin, who died when quite young. On his 
gravestone in Maple Cemetery is inscribed "Our Little Lamb." 

One day in war time a company of soldiers, almost starved, 
came along and stopped at the Beckley tavern. Hepzibah had 
a cow killed as quickly as possible and gave them a hearty 
dinner. It was her son Silas Beckley who strained himself 
carrying water from a spring for the horses of a company of 
soldiers, so that he was an invalid the rest of his life. "Silas 
Beckley died October 1, 1823, after a distressing sickness of 
forty-three years, age 57 years." (Inscription at Beckley.) 

The eldest son of David and Hepzibah Beckley, David Beck- 
ley, Jr., bom March 31, 1765, and his wife, Eunice Williams, 
bom 1759, were grandparents of Mr. William Bulkley. 

There was great excitement when about the time of the 
Battle of Bunker Hill, General Washington and his Staff put 
up at the Beckley House over night. It was said that Eunice 
Williams helped to set the table for their supper. 

George Washington must have traveled with a large supply 
of elm tree switches, and we like to believe the story that the 
great elm tree directly in front of the house was planted by 



DANIEL WILCOX 97 

him at the time of this visit. The tree stands, but the house 
was torn down bj Dick Beckley, the last in town to bear the 
name. 

David Beckley and Hepzibah, his wife, joined the Kensing- 
ton church May 5, 1764, 

Luther Beckley, bom October 11, 1778, died January 1, 
1841 ; son of David and Hepzibah ; married, 1803, Sally 
Flagg, daughter of Solomon Flagg. They lived in one half 
of the old tavern, where their seventeen children were born. 
He was appointed town clerk and they came down street to 
live in the old Riley house opposite the present Mechanics 
Hall. Toward the end of his life he lay in bed while his wife 
worked hard to support the family by taking boarders. Grand- 
parents of the first wife of Charles Risley (Mrs. Orpha 
Edward's story) . 

Patience Wilcox, thirteenth and youngest child of Daniel 
and Sarah White Wilcox, born January 4, 1760, died Sep- 
tember 21, 1810, aged fifty-one; married Eli Barnes; died 
June 18, 1815, aged 61. 

The Barnes family came from Long Island with other 
refugees in war time, when the British took possession of the 
Island. They fled in such haste that the Barneses brought 
along, unbaked, a batch of bread that had been set to rise. 

One child, Jemima, was born to Patience Wilcox and Eli 
Barnes. She married Samuel Kelsey, brother of Stephen 
Wilcox's wife, Mary. 

Ezekiel Kelsey, father of Samuel, lived at the j^orth end 
of Hubbard Street in East Berlin near the foot of Gravel Hill, 
where remains of the cellar may be seen. He had five or more 
children; two married in East Hartford. Elizabeth was the 
wife of landlord Amos Kirby. She used to play the violin for 
dancing parties. 

Miss Isadore Kelsey said that her great-grandfather, Capt 
Eli Barnes, built the house which she occupies on the east cor- 
ner of Main Street (formerly called East Street), where the 
Middletown road passes east toward the mill, and that her 
grandmother Jemima was ten years old at that time. They 



98 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

lived at first in the house of Patience's brother Daniel, who 
died in the army. Miss Kelsey said her grandmother Jemima 
would have been 127 years old if living in 1906. This, as I 
reckon it, would make her born in 1779. 

The Barneses kept a public house, with bar, and a ballroom 
in the south chamber. The land on which the house was built 
was a part of the mile-square farm owned by Daniel Wilcox. 

When Patience died, on February 29, 1836, her brother 
Jacob, who settled her estate, sold her silver teaspoons to Allen 
riagg, who gave them to his two daughters. 

Miss Ida Wilcox is a great-great-granddaughter of Patience 
Wilcox and she would like to see those spoons. 

Miss Kelsey said that when her grandmother Jemima was a 
little girl the family went into Upper Houses to attend church, 
From 1703 to 1790 East Berlin belonged to Upper Houses 
Ecclesiastical Society and were obliged to pay church taxes 
there. 

(See Vol. 1, page 230, Private Laws of Connecticut, Resolve 
of May, 1790, annexing a part of Upper Houses in Middletown 
to Worthingi;on Society in Berlin.) 

Resolved by this Assembly that all that part of the second or 
Upper Houses lying in the Town of said Berlin, excepting the farm 
or lot of land on which said Israel Wilcox now lives is hereby 
annexed to and from henceforth shall be and remain a part of the 
said Society of Worthington. Provided always that nothing in this 
resolve contained, shall be construed to prevent the second or Upper 
Houses Society from collecting at such society rates or taxes as are 
now laid or due from said petitioners, or from any other person 
liable to pay such taxes. 

The East Berlin Mill was built in 1771 by David Sage, Jr., 
Daniel Wilcox, Jr., and Josiah Wilcox, on land of Daniel 
Wilcox, Sr. 

It was at first built as a carding mill and for spinning cotton 
and woolen yarn which was put out to women of the neighbor- 
hood to be woven into blankets and men's cloth. Deacon 
Frederic N^orth remembered taking wool there to be spun into 
yarn. 




Gkandma Huldah 
Mrs. Reuben North 




Birthplace of Lynda and Huldah Wilcox in East Berlin 
House built by .losiah Wilcox about 1779 



DANIEL WILCOX 99 

Josiali Wilcox, eighth child of Daniel and Sarah White 
Wilcox, born March 31, 1750, died September, 1835. Married, 
first, Elizabeth Treat, from Gen. Treat ; married, second, 1779, 
Hiildah Savage, daughter of John; married, third, Naomi 
Kirbj, died 1837. 

By deed of date February 14, 1775, Daniel Wilcox for 
paternal love and affection gave to his son Josiah six acres of 
land with house and barn thereon, bounded east on highway, 
south on Israel Wilcox's land, "west on my own land." 

His house stands at the south end of Main Street, east of 
Berlin, on the west side of the way south of the Mildrum house, 
just north of the stream of water which crosses the road there. 
Large quantities of cider brandy were made by Josiah Wilcox. 
On the east side of the road was a cider mill where apples 
were crushed by a large wheel run by horse power which went 
round and round in a trough. The distillery was in a lot, 
south of the house, where the foundations may still be seen. 
Later the cider mill on the east side was abandoned and another 
was built south of the distillery. Deacon Alfred ISTorth pre- 
served for a long time a large record book of sales of cider 
brandy made by his grandfather. A while since I destroyed 
the book, thinking the business was almost disreputable. 

Samuel Wilcox, son of Josiah, built the brick house, now 
owned by Fred M. North in East Berlin. He married Rhoda 
Xorth and removed to Ohio, where his descendants have pros- 
pered. Occasionally a letter comes from them asking for 
information of their Connecticut ancestors. 

Robert Wilcox, who married the "Sweet Singer of ]\[ichi- 
gan," is a descendant of Josiah Wilcox. 

Olive Wilcox, daughter of Josiah, married in 1800 James 
Booth of New Britain and was mother of Horace Booth. 
Shortly before Mr. Booth died I called to see him. He told me 
that his mother had a string of gold beads. One day a pedlar, 
who went by the name of Squeaking Lease, came to the house 
and told Olive that the beads needed something done to them 
by a jeweler. She allowed him to take the string away, and 
that was the last she ever saw of her beads. 



100 HISTOET OF BEEXIX 

Four of OUT D. A. E. members come from Josiah VTilcox. 

Stephen Wilcox, sixtli son of Daniel and Sarah "Wilcox, bom 
October 19. 1716, died December 22, 1S13, aged ninety-seven 
rears. He married Jamiary 31, 1771 (?), Mary Kelsey 
(daughter of Ezekiel Kelsey), who died October 22, 1836, aged 
eighty-seven years. 

!MJrs. Emma Penfield Botsford. whose husband was a descend- 
ant of Stephen Wilcox, said there used to be in the family an 
obituary of him. which began : ''An Old Eevolutionary Soldier 
Grone.** Daniel Wilcox in 1777 deeded to his son Stephen 
Wilcox, of Aliddletown. for love and affection, six acres of land 
with house and bam thereon. 

Stephen Wilcox and his wife were received to the communion 
of the Worthington Congregational Church by letter from Upper 
Houses. 

Stephen Wilcox, son of Stephen, builr the brick house stand- 
ing on the comer where the Stoney Swamp road turns to go 
up Savage Hill. 

The two sons of Stephen Wilcox. Jr., went to Springfield 
about 1822 where they set up the first stove and tin store in 
that vicinity. They had the Wilcox gift of making money and 
prospered in business. 

The house built by Stephen Wilcox, Sr., is now the pleasant 
home of the Misses Carrie and Hattie Mildrum. 

Samuel Hart, brother of Mrs. Emma Hart Willard. married 
Mary Wilcox, daughter of Stephen Wilcox and his wife, Mary 
Kelsey, and four of our Daughters of the American Revolution 
members claim Mary Wilcox Hart as a grandmother. Mrs. 
Cowles has her silver teaspoons. 

Mrs. Cowles has a cousin in this same generation from 
Stephen Wilcox, Miss Harriet Lyman, a fine musician, who 
has worked out a musical staff, so that the notes are alike on the 
bass and treble clefs. 1£ adopted it will save no end of trouble 
for children learning to read music. 

We all know Mr. Arthur Upson, a Christian lawyer of !N"ew 
Britain, a descendant of Stephen Wilcox. Mr. Upson has a 
cousin in the same line, a brother of Miss Harriet Lyman, the 



DANIEL WrLCOX 101 

miisician, Hon. Edward S. Lyman, who is one of the most 
prominent lawyers in central Alabama, employed as corpora- 
tion law;>^er for the L. & W. R R. C, Judge of the County 
Court, ex-mayor of his city, and has been a member of the 
State Legislature. 

Samuel Wilcox, tenth child of Daniel and Sarah Wilcox, 
born September 12, 1753, died March 12, 1832, married May 
28, 1778, Phoebe Dowd. (Ancestors of Mr. Frank Wilcox.) 

Their house was moved a few rods south of its original site, 
where it was owned and occupied many years by the family of 
Willys Dowd. Mrs. Dowd was a very efficient woman, and 
she brought up a large family of fine sons and daughters. She 
said that when her children were old enough to go to church, 
she took every one of them out into the lobby and took her 
slipper to them. 



Huldah Wilcox, seventh child of Daniel and Sarah Wilcox, 
born May 24, 1748, married Jeremiah Bacon of Westfield, 
and we do not know anything about her life except that Mr. 
Frank Starr says her first husband died and that she married, 
second, Joseph Porter. 

Sarah Wilcox, second child of Daniel and Sarah Wilcox, 
born December 31, 1739, married Jedediah N'orth. 

Their house, at the north end of Berlin Street, was moved 
back from under the two large maple trees, and turned into a 
barn for Golden Ridge Creamery. 

When they first set up housekeeping there the wolves used 
to come down from the ledge and carry off the pigs so that 
they had to be shut up in the barn over night for safety. 

Sarah Wilcox and Jedediah iN'orth had eight children. 
Sarah, the mother, died at age thirty-six, when her last child 
was bom. 

Levi, the second son, enlisted in the Revolutionary War at 
the age of sixteen. He was taken prisoner by the British 
and on shipboard was compelled to fight against his own 
countrymen. His story was that the blood ran ankle deep on 



102 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

deck. In prison lie was fed on rice, and lie never wanted to 
see rice a^ain. He was set at making tools and repairing 
weapons, and at the close of the war, by advice of an English 
soldier who befriended him, he sent in to the British govern- 
ment a bill for skilled services. The bill was allowed and he 
received $1,200, with which he built his house in East Berlin. 
He married his cousin, Rachel White, and they had twelve 
children, all of whom lived to the age of sixty-six or over. 

It would take too much time to tell of the ministers, mis- 
sionaries, doctors, college professors, and teachers, who have 
descended from Sarah Wilcox. 



CHAPTER V. 

The Porter Family. — Edmund Kidder, the Centenarian. — The 
Lee Family. 

Joseph Porter, Jr., born in 1Y02, son of Joseph, and Hannah 
(Buell) Porter of Hartford, grandson of John and Mary 
(Stanley) Porter, and great-grandson of John Porter,* settler, 
in 1639, at Windsor, married, in 1733, Joanna Dodd of Hart- 
ford. They came to Great Swamp, where he was active in 
church affairs. In 1733, when a vote of twelve pence a pound 

* Mrs. F. A. North of Germantowii, Pa., has contributed the following 
information about the Porter families in America. Some of the data was 
obtained originally from Miss Catharine North's papers, especially the 
part about the first American John Porter and his twelve children. 
Incidentally, Miss North herself was a direct descendant of Samuel Porter, 
the fifth child of John Porter of Windsor. It may not be out of place 
to introduce this information here: 

John Porter, born between 1590 and 1595 in Wraxhall, Parish of Kenil- 
worth, Warwickshire, England, embarked at London, with his family, for 
America, arriving at Dorchester, Mass., May 30, 1630. He died 1648 at 
Windsor. His wife Rose died 1648 or 1649. There were twelve children: 
John, b. 1618; Thomas, b. 1620; Sarah, 1622; Anna, 1624; Samuel, 
1626; Rebecca, 1628; Mary, 1630; Rose, 1632; Joseph, 1634; Nathaniel, 
1638; James, 1640; and Hannah, 1642. 

(Joseph Porter, who came to Great Swamp, was a descendant of the 
eldest son of the first John Porter.) 

Samuel Porter married, in 1659, Hannah Stanley, daughter of 
Thomas Stanley. 

Hezekiah Porter, b. 1665, their son, married Hannah Cowles. 

Timothy Porter, their son, married Hannah Gk)odwin. 

Aaron Porter, their son, married Rhoda Sage. 

Isaac Porter, b. 1755, their son, married Hepzibah North. 

Olive Porter, 1782, married Richard Wilcox. 

Mary Olive Wilcox, 1812, married Alfred North. 

Catharine M. North, 1840. 
Among the descendants of Samuel Porter and Hannah Stanley were 
Israel Putnam, Clarence Steadman, U. S. Grant, Grover Cleveland, Thomas 
W. Higginson, and John Brown. 



104 HISTORY OF BERLIJf 

was laid for building a new meeting house, he was appointed 
to collect the tax. 

Mr. Burnham was in ill health for a long time before his 
death, and the people began early to look about for candidates 
to preach "on probation" with view of settlement. 

In 1742 Joseph Porter went to Stratford and brought up a 
Mr. Judson, who assisted Mr. Burnham and boarded with the 
Porters. The society voted £7. 16s. as compensation to Mr. 
Porter for his journey to Stratford, and for entertaining Mr. 
Judson, and his horse. 

Mr. Burnham rallied so that he continued to preach until 
near his last days. From 1750 for more than six years the 
church was without a settled minister. 

Mr. Samuel Clark of "Elizabeth town" was installed as 
the successor of Mr. Burnham, July 14, 1756. When the 
society was divided he chose to go with the Kensington parish 
and remained with that church until his death, IN'ovember 6, 
1775. 

The records of the church, as placed in the hands of Mr, 
Clark at the time of his settlement, were in his words "very 
imperfect and broken." A little girl said, "Papa, I have 
cleaned out your pocket book for you, I burned up all those old 
dirty papers, and put back just the clean ones." Her father 
nearly fainted. Those old papers were his family records that 
never could be replaced. Mr. Burnham's statistics, if he kept 
them, have never been found, possibly some neat housekeeper 
threw them into the fire. Mr. Clark proceeded at once to make 
a list of "Such as were members when I came." 

In this list of 1756 were the names of Joseph Porter and 
his wife Hannah (Joanna ?). Their son Samuel Porter, bom 
June 1, 1750, married June 14, 1779, Mindwell Griswold, of 
Windsor. She died in 1810 and he married, second, 1812, 
widow Elizabeth Percival, mother of the poet, James G. 
Percival. Mrs. Percival had another son, Oswin. At his 
death, about 1870, the family was extinct. A bureau full of 
his mother's personal belongings was sold at public auction 
from the house next south of the old Worthin2:ton church. 



THE PORTER FAMILY 105 

Among the articles were an immense green silk bonnet with a 
great, black lace, embroidered veil and fine hand-woven linen 
sheets. A beautiful bead handbag was struck off to a pack 
peddler who chanced along. Colonel AYilliam Bulkeley was the 
auctioneer. 

William Bulkeley, Jr., bought a chest with its contents. In 
it, besides a lot of old books, was a piece of metal, black as 
iron, which proved to be a masonic jewel, of silver, worn as a 
watch charm. In size it is two and one-quarter inches long, 
one and three-quarter inches wide. Around the edge in front 
is a motto, with number and name of owner, as follows : 

AMOE HONOR ET JUSTITIA A. IT. 5791, JAMES PERCI- 
VAL JUKR. 

On the back appears the motto : 

IN THE LORD IS ALL OUR TRUST. 

Under skull and cross bones is a cofEn, on which are the 
words "Memento Mori." Both sides are covered with masonic 
emblems exquisitely engraved. 

Dr. James Percival, father of James G., was Worshipful 
Master of Harmony Lodge, 1797-1801, which then met in 
Berlin. 

Rev. J. T. Pettee, of Meriden, who has examined this jewel, 
says that the number, 5791, corresponds with 1791 of the 
Christian era, and it shows that Dr. Percival wore the badge 
sixteen years before his death, January 21, 1807. 

In the course of time the Burnham parsonage and farm came 
into possession of Samuel Porter. Of the eleven children bom 
there, to him and his wife, Mindwell, nine lived to maturity. 
Their names were Samuel, I^athaniel, ]\Iindwell, Almira, 
Laura, Xorman, Joanna, Chloe and Sophia. 

Samuel, bom I*^ovember 22, 1780, settled in Philadelphia. 
Three of the sisters, Mindwell, second wife of Jesse Hart, 
Almira, wife of Blakeslee Barnes, and Sophia, who was mar- 
ried late in life to Joseph Camp of Xewington, left in widow- 



106 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

liood, joined forces and kept lionso at the Squire Daniel Dunbar 
place, on Worthington Street. 

Joanna was married to John Ariadne Hart, botanist and 
physician. He practiced in Berlin for awhile before his 
removal to Natchez, where he died of yellow fever October 23, 
1822, aged thirty-two years. 

Sophia, born February 10, ITOT, went to Xatchoz with hor 
sister, and afterAvards taught school in Philadelphia. She 
used to say that while tliere she took lessons on the piano, and 
had learned to play "Robin Adair,'' when, somehow, it hap- 
pened that she got married and that ended it. She died at 
Newington, October 21, 1891, at the ago of ninety-four. In 
her latter years she did not know the faces of her lifelong 
neighbors, but to the last she could make a beautiful prayer. 

Norman Porter, born December 12, 1780, married in 1823, 
Abby Galpin, daughter of Col. Joseph Galpin, half sister of 
Mrs. Seth Doming, and a lovely woman she was. Their wedding 
journey was to Lexington, Ky., the first part of the way by 
stage, then over the mountains they had to ride on the backs 
of mules. "When the time came for them to return tliey rode 
all the way on horseback. 

Mr. Porter, in his business as merchant at Lexington, gained 
what was considered, in his day, a small fortune. 

The town records at New Britain show that in 1824-5 Nor- 
man Porter bought out the right of the other heirs in his 
fatlier's estate. The deeds were signed by Mindwell Hart and 
Jesse Hart, Chloe Peck and Everard Peck, and Almira Barnes, 
all of Berlin ; by Samuel Porter of Philadelphia, Joanna Plart 
and Sophia Porter of Natchez, and by Norman Porter of 
Lexington. 

A life interest in the place was reserved for the father, 
Samuel, who died January 22, 1838, aged eighty-eight years. 
Then Norman, who had come back to his native town, planned 
to built a new house, finer than any to be seen in this region. 
He decided to use the homestead site, and wished to tear down 
the old house, but his sisters, who loved the place, begged him 
to move it off, and to please them he consented. The way was 



THE PORTER FAMILY 



107 



narrow and the house was wide. It stuck fast in the road and 
remained there several weeks. Finally, however, it was landed 
on the new site, opposite the Berlin town house, where it 
stands to this day. The work of removal cost more than the 
house was worth when settled, except for the sentiment. 

The sisters used to like to go and look over the rooms, filled 
with dear associations, but there came a day — the time of Mrs. 
Camp's last visit there, when, as she stepped over the threshold 
of the east sitting room door, she turned and said to her com- 
panion : "Let us go away, it does not look like home here now." 

Mrs, Emily (Galpin) Bacon, a niece of Mrs. N'orman Porter, 
remembers that once, when she visited her aunt in the old house, 
Sophia Porter (Mrs. Camp) led her up into one of the chambers 
to see the silk worms she was raising. As she fed them their 
supper of mulberry leaves they made as much noise as a horse 
champing. In one comer of the room Mrs. Camp showed her 
how she reeled the silk from the cocoons. 

This house was photographed in the nick of time. Soon 
afterward a carpenter, in want of a job, persuaded the owner 
to let him cut off the west half. He said there would be lumber 
enough in it to build another house. It was said that the lumber 
was of no use when razed, but the proportions of the old 
parsonage were ruined. 

Mrs. Frank D. Jamison, a great-granddaughter of Samuel 
Porter, after reading the account of the removal of the Burn- 
ham-P.orter house, recalled this story: 

The carpenter, when consulted in regard to drawing the 
house away, advised against it, saying that the building was so 
old that it would not "pay." 

"Can you move it ?" asked Mr. Porter. 

"Yes," replied the carpenter, "I can move it." "Then 
move it!" said Mr. Porter, "It is none of your business 
whether it will pay or not." 

Mrs. Jamison's mother, Mrs. Jane Porter Hart Dodd, who, 
after the death of her father, Jesse Hart, lived with her widowed 
mother at her grandfather's, remembers that attached to the 
main house was a long line of back buildings that seemed 



108 HISTORY OF BEKLIX 

interminable to tlie child. Besides the place piled with many 
cords of wood for winter fires, there was a room used as a dairy, 
and another was filled, in autumn, with vegetables and fragrant 
apples. 

Town Clerk William Bulkeley was at the raising of Xorman 
Porter's gTand new house. A thunder shower came up that 
afternoon, and he. with all the other boys, ran into the barn 
for protection. 

Mr. Porter was a fine looking man, erect of carriage, and 
gentlemanly in bearing; quick of step, energetic and full of 
business; always doing something, or going somewhere. It 
is said that he went to Hartford nearly every day. His farm, 
which he adored, was cultivated for pleasure, not for profit. 
Here were found all the new fruits and flowers — and labor- 
saving inventions. Japonicas bloomed in the windows, tulips, 
lilies and strange new shrubs bordered the walks. Grapes, 
Isabellas and Catawbas, climbed over arbors ; Bartlett pears 
and Seckels grew in the garden, a delicious revelation to the 
neighbors, who were welcome to take grafts. Children, who 
had never seen strawberries growing except in the fields, heard 
with wonder that over at !Mr. Il^orman Porter's there were beds 
of cultivated strawberries which bore so full that they were 
left to decay on the vines. Mrs. Dodd has told us of the con- 
sternation created when Uncle ]N'orman cooked and ate the 
fruit of the tomato he brought home from Kentucky. 

South of the house was a hot-bed, filled in the spring with 
"green things gTowing." 

There was a patent gate at the driveway, west of the house, 
that opened and closed automatically by a series of levers under- 
neath, as the horses stepped upon and off the platform, that 
slanted down to the gTound on either side. 

When Mr. Porter heard that Daniel Buck of Windsor had 
a wonderful new breed of cows from Island of ^Uderney, he 
took his neighbor, Cyrus Root, and drove up to see the cows 
and the butter. jSTot long afterward a herd of twenty or thirty 
of those Aldemeys were grazing in the pastures on the Porter 
farm. 



THE PORTER FAMILY 109 

The large horse barn, east of the house, was burned after the 
place came into the possession of Richard Murray. 

The field south of the Christian Lane school house, called 
the Lee lot, came into the possession of Mr. Porter, and when 
he was about sixty years old he planted it full of apple trees. 
When asked why, at his time of life, he should set out apple 
trees, he replied, "I expect to live to send fruit from this 
orchard to Queen Victoria." He did live to gather a bountiful 
harvest of apples from what came to be known as the "prize 
orchard of the state." 

The trees were started in this way. Seeds from common 
apples were planted and cultivated. In the fall of the second 
year the saplings were pulled and stored in the cellar, where, 
during the winter, they were grafted. In five years from seed 
the trees were in bearing. 

Cyrus Root, Jr., who is the authority for this description, 
gives a list of the variety of apples, all gro\yn on the Lee lot. 
It includes the Baldwin, Peck's Pleasant, Roxbury Russet, 
Hubbardston's ISTonesuch, Belden, Sweet, Yellow Bell-flower, 
Gravenstein, Sweet Russet, and Rhode Island Greening. There 
were also Porter and spice apples there. Mrs. Webber used to 
dry the spice apples on shares. 

In after years it was sad to see that orchard browned, as 
by fire, from the ravages of canker worms. 

Mr. Porter was fond of children. He even allowed them to 
swing on that patent gate. One day a little girl who lived in 
that neighborhood started to walk over to Upson's store in 
Kensing-ton, on an errand for her mother. She lost her money 
in the road, and began to cry. Presently Mr. Porter met her 
and asked her why she cried. Then he took money from his 
own pocket, gave it to her, and sent her on her way, gratefully 
happy. 

On Sunday the Porter horses always knew that they were 
to stop and add to their load any woman or child walking 
toward the village church. 

In his zeal for town and village improvement, Mr. Porter 
sometimes gave offense by urging people beyond their inclina- 



110 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

tians. One day as he came up the street he stopped to speak 
with a housewife out in her yard, and said: "You ought to 
have a fountain here." She straightened herself up with 
hauteur and said, "Can't you make a few more suggestions, 
Mr. Porter?" 

In 1849, when subscriptions were solicited for the new 
church in Worthing-ton, the name of iSTorman Porter was placed 
on the paper for $1,000. In 1852, when the recently-built 
spire was found so defective as to be in danger of falling to 
the ground, he subscribed $125 toward repairs. Again, in 
1855, after the gTeat revival, under Mr. Love, when galleries 
were added to the church, he gave $200. On these subscrip- 
tion papers may be seen the name of Captain ISTorman Peck, 
who matched Mr. Porter by giving $1,000 for the new church 
in 1849, $125 for repair of spire, in 1852, and $200, for 
galleries in 1855. Samuel C. Wilcox, who contributed $300 
in 1849, gave $100 in 1852, and $200 in 1855. 

ISTorman Porter died January 20, 1863, aged seventy-three 
years, as recorded on his white marble monument in the Bridge 
cemetery. 

]!^orman Porter, Jr., only child of his parents, born in Ken- 
tucky, was in sympathy with southern life and, in the autumn 
of 1863, as soon as he could settle up the family affairs after 
his father's death, he removed to San Jose, California. His 
wife, Hannah, was the eldest of three daughters of Captain 
Peck. Their children, born in Berlin, were Mary, Arthur, 
Margaret and Evangeline. Two daughters, Anna and Eliza- 
beth, were born in San Jose. 

Arthur has been successful in the business of silver mining 
in J^evada. 

After the recent earthquake the family felt unsettled. They 
said the only safe place they could think of was Berlin. 

The mother of I^orman Porter, Jr., was born in 1796. She 
went with her son to spend her declining years in San Jose, 
and died there at the age of ninety-six. 

We do not know the history of the little brown house opposite 
the Porter place. James Richardson, a shoemaker, lived there 
many years. 



THE PORTER FAMILY 111 

In 1786, Isaac N^orth, Jr., for the consideration of £22, 
deeded six acres of land to his son, Abel. This land lies on 
the north side of the road coming toward the village from 
Christian Lane, and the house, with brick basement, thereon 
standing, long known as the Pollard place, was built by Abel 
Xorth, whose wife was Sarah Wilcox. She used to bake most 
excellent shortcakes on a slanting board, before the open fire. 

The place next east of Abel ISTorth's, now used as a town 
home, was occupied early in the last century by Blakeslee 
Barnes, who married Almira Porter, one of the daughters of 
Samuel Porter. 

Mr. Barnes had unusual natural business faculty, and in his 
occupation as a tinner, conducted, with a number of apprentices, 
in a shop near his home, he was quite prosperous. Denied the 
advantages of schools in boyhood, he studied, after he began 
business, to make up his lack of book knowledge. 

Leonard Pattison learned his trade of Mr. Barnes and then 
went to Lexington to work for J^orman Porter. 

After a while Mr. Barnes moved up on to the street where he 
died, August 1, 1823, aged forty-two years. It is supposed that 
he built the house which he occupied, and which was afterward 
purchased and remodeled by Captain Peck, now owned by 
Daniel Webster. 

The town of Berlin bought the Town farm, with buildings 
thereon, iN'ovember 7, 1833, of Seth Deming, described by him 
as "the place where I now live." In the cellar, fastened firmly 
into the wall, are two iron rings, once used to secure charges of 
the town who were violently insane. There was a fine brass 
knocker on the front door of the house, and Mrs. Laura 
(Barnes) Willard, who was bom there in 1808, obtained it 
from the Selectmen in exchange for a modern bell. 



We have been reminded that one of the tenants of the Burn- 
ham-Porter house, after its removal, was Edmund Kidder, a 
useful, honest, steady, sober man, who died there February 23, 
1885, aged one hundred years, six months and six days. He 
was one of the oldest Free Masons in the country, but was 



112 HI5TOBT OF BEP.T.TX 

Tillable to attend their meetings in his old age. He voted for 
Jefferson in iSO-i. 

Bom in Fairfield, Conn., in 17S4. his father died when he 
•was eleven years old, and at the age of thirteen he shipped on 
board a merchantman for the East Indies. He made a three- 
years' cmise and sailed around the world. Later he took up 
the trade of stone mason. He worked at various odd tasks 
in the neighborhood up to his last summer and could swing an 
axe as well as a man of sixty. He was fond of reading, and 
was always pleased to receive copies of the Sailor's Magazine. 

A bachelor up to the age of fifty-seven, he then married, in 
1841, Lydia Fielding Johnson, widow of Shadrack Johnson, 
of Hartford, twenty-five years his junior, and they had three 
children. Mrs. Henry Moore, whose first husband was Darius 
Richardson, was a daughter of Mrs. Kidder's first marriage. 
The only father she ever knew was her mother's second husband. 

Edmund Kidder was buried at the south side of the family 
lot in Maple Cemetery, Xext north is the grave of Mrs. Kidder, 
who died October 26, ISSS, aged seventy-nine. These two 
graves are unmarked. Xext north of the father and mother 
lies a daughter, whose stone bears the following inscription: 

Elizabeth T. Lamb, Daughter of E. E, and L. F. Kidder, Bom 
Jan. 17, 1842 Died July 22d 1S61. 

Opposite the town house, on what is now a barren field sur- 
rounding the Porter farmhouse, as it came to be called, there 
stood, within the memory of some now living, a grove of wal- 
nut trees. Farther south, near the Middletown turnpike, were 
many grand old trees of walnut, chestnut, and oak, spared from 
the ancient forest, so dense were they as to hide the prospect 
from one road to the other. Here, village picnics were held. 

One year, Clark Talbott attempted to run the old tavern as 
a temperance house. To help eke out expenses he served a 
Fourth of July dinner, spread on tables in the shade of those 
trees. The tickets were sold for seventy-five cents each, and the 
people in their desire to assist the temperance landlord, all 
went forth to dine with him on the occasion. 



THE POKTER FAMILY 113 

One Sunday school picnic on that ground is especially remem- 
bered, in the time of Mr. Love, when Miss Mary Talcott, a 
successful Sunday school teacher, was active in trying to make 
everybody have a good time. One of the boys, now in Washing- 
ton, D. C, recalls his first experience with ice cream that day, 
and a girl, now gray-haired, wishes she could have another piece 
of the delectable sponge cake made by Mrs. Florence Brande- 
gee. Her receipt called for ten eggs, their weight in sugar, 
the weight of six eggs in flour, juice and grated rind of one 
lemon, and a saltspoonful of salt. As for the rest it depended 
on the skill in mixing and baking. 

At that time, on the south side of the turnpike, opposite the 
Porter grove, were acres of land covered with trees and under- 
growth, known as Captain Peck's woods. Another piece of 
woodland, west of the Abel J^orth house, which until quite 
recently remained uncut, was very attractive to the lover of 
wild flowers. 

Almira Barnes, daughter of "Blakslee Bams," was married 
to Thomas G. Fletcher, a lawyer of Xew York City. They 
had two sons, Frank H., born 1831, married Helen Clapp; 
and Charles S., born 1833. Mrs. Fletcher died in 1835. A 
deed on record at ^N'ew Britain shows that she came to the age 
of twenty-one JSTovember 15, 1833, and in that year Esquire 
Dimbar sold for her, buildings and land that came to her from 
her father's estate. The property conveyed consisted in part 
of a lot, once owned by Samuel Porter, situated southwesterly 
from Riverside or Bridge Cemetery, with bam, "Cider-mill 
house" and "Still house" thereon. 

A clump of trees, on a rise of ground, by a bend in the stream, 
about fifteen rods south of the road, marks the site of the 
distillery. Aunt Mindwell Hart said it was a wonder that they 
were not all drunkards, with so much cider brandy around. It 
is not known that any of the family ever were drunkards. 
Xorman Porter was a strong temperance man, and so outspoken 
as to gain the ill will of men of different views. One day, as 
he drove up to the post office, at Mr. Galpin's store, a young 
rowdy stepped up to him, with a horsewhip, and gave him a 
8 



114 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

thrashing. Mr. Porter was an old man then, and the act was 
severely condemned by the community. 

Captain Peck bought Mrs. Fletcher's property and the "still" 
was turned into a dwelling house. Peter Mullen lived there 
and worked for the captain. His wife, with an abundance of 
water running close by her kitchen door, took in washing. 

A boy who lived there came to the district school, his head 
alive with pediculus capitis. Colonies of the pest soon swarmed. 
Teacher and pupil shared alike in the invasion, and careful 
mothers cried "Mercy on us" when they found what their 
boys and girls brought home from school. Kerosene was not 
then on the market, and one poor woman sent to a neighbor to 
ask the loan of her fine tooth comb. She said she wanted to 
use it to comb the lice from her children's heads. 

This still house was sold to E. S. Kirby, who moved it over 
near the railroad station, where it was used as a liquor saloon. 

In the deed of conveyance from Mrs. Fletcher in 1833, the 
"Point house" was included. It was described as occupied by 
Samuel Durand. A part of this house which still stands near- 
est the point, east of the cemetery, was made from Blakeslee 
Barnes's tinshop, moved from the north side of his house up on 
the "Street." The names "blue house," "blue house ceme- 
tery" and "blue house bridge" — the north bridge — were given 
because, as before stated, the house was once painted blue. This 
dwelling house was remodelled by John Staveley. 

A short distance farther east brings us to another point of 
land. The deeds of this place show that it was purchased 
ISTovember 6, 1832, by Cyrus Root, from Samuel A. Hamlin, 
and that on the same day he sold it to Horace Sheldon for 
the price of $400. The house was then there but not the brick 
shop, which was built by Sheldon who was a blacksmith and 
shod stage horses. On April 2, 1835, he sold out for $1,200 
to Benjamin P. Famiing, who was also a blacksmith. In the 
Riverside cemetery, on a little stone is the following inscription : 

Clarence Lee, only child of Benj. E. Fanning and Charlotte 
Fanning, d. May 28th, 1854, aged 3 yrs. 4 mos. 
How many hopes lie blasted here. 



THE PORTEE FAMILY 



115 



Mr. Fanning had an nniisnally bright mind, but the loss 
of this little son embittered his soul and he could never rise 
above the blow. His wife, a refined, gentle, home body, died 
September 2, 1885, aged seventy-four years. Mr. Fanning 
married again and removed to Portland, where he died February 
6, 1892, aged eighty-one years. 

The Fanning place is now the home of Alonzo Sweet and 
his wife, Alice Wilson [Dillings] Sweet. The large open field 
opposite, on the south side of the way, was owned, a hundred 
years ago, by Pet© Galpin, who was seventy-seven years old in 
1808. On E"ovember 7 of that year he sold, to Amos and Elisha 
Edwards, for $100, sixty-five rods ofit from the east end of 
that lot. It was bounded south by Jesse Hart, which shows 
that Mr. Hart then owned the hotel property. 

Amos and Elisha Edwards were brothers of Josiah Edwards, 
who kept the store on the northwest corner at the top of this 
hill. They built a house, barn and shop, on their land, and 
then, September 23, 1816, sold the property to John Lee, 2d, 
son of Captain James Lee of Bristol. He was born May 28, 
1766, and married at the age of twenty-two, Abigail Gerome. 
The children began to come the next year, and seventeen years 
later, thirteen had been born to them. Unfortunately, the last 
six died young, and the mother followed them to a "land of 
rest." In 1809, the father married, second, widow Charlotte 
(Dorr) :N'eff. She brought to his home at least one child of her 
first marriage, Delia :Neff, who became the wife of Nelson 
Atwood (grandparents of Clarence Atwood). 

The names of the Lee children were: Jeptha, John, Henry, 
Juba, Abigail, Edward, Aurilla, Jerome, Ebenezer, Lucy, Lucy, 
Polly, and William. Then, after the second marriage, three 
more children, Edmund, Charlotte, and Sally, came to bless 
the Lee household. 

Charlotte was the wife of Benjamin Fanning; her brother, 
Edmund Francis Lee, married Melvina Allen, "daughter of 
Thomas G. x\ddison, a descendant of Joseph Addison, Prime 
Minister of England and author of the Spectator. He was 
a civil engineer of some note at Louisville, Ky.," where he 



116 HISTORY OF BEELIX 

died July 15, 1S57. Edward Gavlord Lee died at Janesville, 
TTis., in 1S62. He had four sons and one grandson in the 
Civil TVar. John Lee, the father, his two sons, Jeptha and 
Henrv, and William Palmiter, the husband of his daughter, 
Aurilla. were all in the War of 1S12. 

John Lee came to Berlin from Burlington in ISIG. He 
was a blacksmith, and shod stage horses in his shop, which 
stood east of the house. He died August IS, 1S44. at the 
age of seventy-eight years. His wife, Charlotte, died Septem- 
ber 3, 1S36, aged sixty-four years. Their graves are at 
Biverside. The Lee place is now owned by Dr. B. E. Ensign. 

At a town meeting held in December, 1TS5. it was voted 
''That the Parish of Worthington may erect a Poimd in sd 
Parish at their own expense, in such place as shall be most 
convenient." 

Where the first poimd was situated we do not know, but 
within the memory of the oldest inhabitant, it was east of John 
Lee's blacksmith shop. It was about fifty by thirty-six feet 
in size, and was surrounded by a strong high fence. When 
animals were inside, a row of boys sat on the top rail of that 
fence. James Bichardson had six sheep that lived on the high- 
way, and whenever a neighbors gate chanced to be left open, 
in rushed that flock to trample and destroy the garden. One 
day, when the hayward was half seas over, he came across those 
sheep and drove them to pound. That ended the nuisance. 

Once a large flock of sheep owned by a butcher were 
impoimded there. The owner refused to reclaim them and one 
morning the sheep all lay on the grotind with their throats 
neatly cut, as if by butcher. Lf animals were not redeemed 
within a certain time they were sold by the town. 

Daniel Galpin, constable, sold at auction, July 23, 1S02, 
six sheep that had been impounded. They were struck off to 
the highest bidder for $-i.7S. 

When creatures fed on the commons it was customary to 
mark them, and to have the mark recorded. Some of those 
marks, taken from the earlv records, are as follows : 



THE PORTER FAMILY 



117 



Elishama Brandegee Jr. Ear Mark is a hole in Each Ear and a 
Bobtail. Ptecorded May 21st, 1811. 

Roger Riley's Ear Marke is half crop under the Right Ear and 
also a Bole'd tail. Recorded March 22, 1800. 

Samuel Wilcox Mark is a half penny underside the right ear, a 
slit between the head & the half penny & Crop of the left ear. 
Recorded Nov. 21st, 1Y92. 

Until within a few years a front fence was an expensive 
necessity. The iron fence, removed not long since from the 
front of the village church, was intended to last forever. The 
bill for this fence, dated April 6, 1853, sent to ^rman Porter 
and committtee, was for $378.00. 

The pound, which was a part of the hotel property, was sold. 
May 26, 1883, by Landlord Henry Gwatkins, to Alfred Xorth, 
for $100 cash, and with this lift, Mr. Gwatkins took his wife 
on a trip back to their old home in England. 

The small dwelling house, of which the pound is now the 
south yard, was built about 1880 by Albert Holt to rent as a 

market. 

A description has already been given of the Edwards 

carriage factory that stood opposite the John Lee place. The 

tinners' business, now conducted on that site by Homer E. 

Damon, was established by James B. Carpenter and S. C. 

Wilcox, and afterwards continued by Lorenzo Lamb, now of 

Hartford. 

This hill, known for over forty years as "Deacon :N'orth's 

Hill," was formerly a quagmire when the frost was coming 
out of the ground. 

Mrs. Almira Barnes died March 29, 1858, while away on a 
visit. She was brought home, and, as the procession attempted 
to come up the hill, the carriages stuck fast in the deep mud. 
Soon after this Deacon Xorth took from the town a year's 
contract for repair of roads. He dug a trench, three feet wide 
and three feet deep, in the center of this hill, from the top 
down to the tinshop, and filled the space solid with stones. 
Another springy place that he made firm was over east of Wil- 
liam Bulkeley's. He spent more than he received for his 
year's contract. 



CHAPTER VI. 

The Root Family. — The "Lee House" and its Occupants. 

John Root, one of the early settlers in Farmington, was the 
ancestor of the Christian Lane families of that name. His will, 
dated April 21, 1684, reads as follows: 

I, John Roote, sen. of the town of Farmington do make this my 
last will & Testament: I give to my wife Mary Roote a constant 
comfortable maintenance to be paid to her by my Executors during 
her widowhood and £20. But in Case she marry again, I give her 
£20 more, and then the Constant maintenance to cease. I doe 
solemnly charge my sons Joseph & Caleb, as long as the care of their 
Mother shall be incumbent upon them to carry very dutifull and 
tenderly toward her & see from time to time that she want nothing 
for her comfortable support, and I hope that the Overseers of this 
my will will have an eye to this care. To each of my sons which 
are already married, 20 shillings; & to my gr children 5 shillings. 
I give to my daughter Mary, the wife of Isaac Bininson £15. I do 
confirm to my son Steven Roote the 20 acres of land which I engaged 
upon his marriage with his Wife that now is. 

I give to my son Joseph both my Looms with all the Tackling. To 
my sons Caleb & Joseph I give the remainder of my Estate 

Stephen Root, son of John, and father of the John who came 
to Great Swamp, was called the ^'Giant of Farmington." He 
was well built and of herculean strength and powers. In 
height he was six feet and six inches. He was one of the 
greatest racers of his day and was never outrun except by an 
Indian. He was in the I^^arragansett war and was in the fight 
when the fort was destroyed. He carried a sword and a huge 
musket, now held as priceless family treasures. 

In his will, dated October 16, 1716, Stephen Root gave to 
his son, John Root, "a pair of brown steers," all his ''wear- 
ing clothes," and "half his husbandry tools." John, born at 
Farmington, 1685, was already hard at work clearing up a farm 



THE KOOT FA:MILY l^^ 



in Great Swamp. The ground was covered with bushes and 
wild o-rapevines, and those brown steers had a plenty of exercise. 
John Root was strongly built, with broad shoulders and large 
hands, but he was not so tall by eight inches as his father, 
Stephen, and those wearing clothes would make over nicely for 
him. Besides clothes were clothes in the days when women 
carded, spun, and wove the material, and cut and made every 
garment that went on to the backs of the family. 
'' John Root married July 10, 1710, Margaret, daughter of 
Col. John Strong of Farmington. Their house, which is still 
standing on the west side of the way at the south end of Chris- 
tian Lane, unchanged as built in 1712, is a rare model of the 
homes in which our ancestors dwelt two hundred years ago. 
The bam was built in 170G. 

Are not these two buildings the oldest in town ? 
Dwight Root and his sisters, the Misses Elizabeth and Han- 
nah Root, children of the late Timothy Root, are the last of 
five successive generations who have lived on this farm. The 
family have in their possession the deeds by which the once 
extensive farm was acquired by John Root. One given by 
Ebenezer Gilbert is dated June 4, 1708. 

The oldest deed of all is signed by Samuel Oxuis (his mark). 
Sounds like an Indian name. The land is described in three 
parcels ''known as the widow Oxuis her land," witnessed 
before Thomas Hart, Justice. 

Attached to the deed is a paper signed by mark E of Eliza- 
beth, mother of Samuel Oxuis, by which she gives her well 
beloved son power of attorney to sell her land. 

John Root was never sick in his life until three days before 
his death, when he had lung fever. He and his wife were 
buried in the Christian Lane cemetery. Their inscriptions 
read as follows: , 

:Mr. John Root, d. Nov. 16th, 1764, aged 80. 

Margaret, wife of John Root d. Apr. 20th, 1751, aged 60. 

Their son, John Root, married May 26, 1762, Anna, daugh- 
ter of Dr. Joseph and Elizabeth Hollister Steele. He was six 



120 HISTORY OF BERLIK" 

feet two inches in height, with large shoulders, and was remark- 
ahle for strength and agility. Foot races were very popular 
in his day and he was one of the greatest runners Berlin ever 
produced. He ran a race with John Judd, Avith a log chain 
wound around his body, and defeated him. He died i^ovember 
8, 1781, aged fifty-eight, after a sickness of sixty days of lung 
fever. 



Asahel Root, born February 11, 1Y66, son of John Root and 
Elizabeth Steele Root, married Hannah Goodrich, sister of 
''Uncle" John Goodrich. Asahel Root died August 2, 1818, 
aged fifty-two. Hannah, his wife, died in 1847, aged seventy- 
seven. Their eight children were : Jesse, Asahel, Amos, 
Cyrus, Samuel, Timothy, Rebecca, and Hannah, all born in 
the Root house, still standing. 

Jesse, who was a school teacher, lived with his brother Timo- 
thy, on the homestead, and died unmarried, January 22, 1852, 
aged sixty-two. He was the genealogist of the family, and to 
him we are indebted for many of the facts given in this account. 

The inscription on the gravestone of Asahel Root, Jr., in 
the Christian Lane burying ground reads as follows : 

Asahel Root died at Farmington Aug. 7th, 1833 aged 40; interred 
here. His father Asahel, his grandfather John & his great-grand- 
father, John Root, rest near this spot. 

The widow of Asahel Root, Jr., was married, second, to 
Deacon Cyprian Goodrich of Kensington. 

Amos Root went to ISTew York State as a school teacher, and 
married there, in 1830, Orpha Stanton. They came to Berlin 
and lived for a time in the old Elishama Brandegee house. 
Afterward their home was in Meriden. They had thirteen 
children, nine sons and four daughters. Of the sons, Joseph, 
Reuben, Timothy, and Cyrus were soldiers in the Civil War. 

Benjamin, the youngest son, has held for many years a place 
of responsibility in the Bridgeport post ofiice. 

Mrs. Amos Root died in Meriden in 1896, aged eighty-nine. 



THE KOOT fa:n[ily l"! 



Cyrus Root, who married, in 1829, Delia A. Stocking of 
Blue Hills, purchased the Oswin Stanley place, over on the 
road leading from the Root farm to the railroad station. The 
house, on the south side of the way, its roof with the long 
hack slant called a "lean-to" or "linter," still stands. The 
great farm barn opposite the house was destroyed by fire a 
few years since. Besides the care of his farm, Mr. Root owned 
a blacksmith shop, east of the barn, where horses and cattle 
of the neighborhood were shod. 

A daughter, Leontine, born to Mr. and Mrs. Cyrus Root, 
died in 1853, at the age of nineteen. She was buried up in 
their lot, easterly from the house, where her broken-hearted 
mother could see the grave from her sitting room window. 

The cousins remember Aunt Delia Ann as sitting by that 
window, crying. 

Cyrus Root died October 2, 1879, aged eighty-one years. 
As the farm was then to go out of the family, he was carried 
to Blue Hills for burial, and Leontine was taken there also. 

Cyrus Root, son of Cyrus, the only surviving child, is in 
the Department of the Interior, at Washington. His mother 
died in his home at High Ridge, Md., February 12, 1897, 
aged eighty-seven years and four months. 

Samuel, son of Asahel and Hannah (Goodrich) Root, was 
an East India merchant and died on a vessel at sea. Two of 
his sons, Samuel and William Root, are in business in Buf- 
falo, K. Y. 

Timothy Root, who remained on the homestead, married 
Eliza Wilcox of Canton, Conn. He was paralyzed by a fall 
from a tree, and remained an invalid for several years, until 
his death, January 10, 1864, at the age of fifty-four. 

He and his daughter Eliza, who died of consumption in 
December, 1873, at the age of twenty-one, were buried in the 
lot at the side of Leontine Root, but when that land was sold 
they were removed to Christian Lane cemetery. 

As has been stated elsewhere, Rebecca Root was the second 
wife of Samuel Duraud. In giving the names of the children 



122 HI5TOKT OF BESIXS" 

of Mr. Ihirand and his first wiie. Eloisa (Lewis>. tliat of 
Mrs. Jezmerre A. rhurand Cox was omirred. 

Asahel K.X't, St., Lad an elder brother John, and when he 
married Mary Gilbert, daughter of Ebenezer and Mary (Bnt- 
triek) Gilbert, a new house was built for them next north, of 
the old place. Their children were Lois, Sarah. Harriet, -John, 
George, Mary, and Amanda. 

The women of this family as well as the men were tall, and 
of a commanding presence. Asahel was six feet two inches in 
hei^t. One father of six sons, all measuring six feet, nsei 
to speak of his thirty-six feet of (Root) boys. 

The inscriptions on the stones of John and Mary ( Gilbert) 
Root, in the Christian Lane burying grotmd, read as follows : 

Mr. John Koot b. Apr. i 17^ d. Ang. 2T, 1S2T aged 63. [After 
two years' illness of consmnpticml . 

Mrs. Mary, wife of Mr. John Koot, d Sept. ISth, 1S23, aged 54. 

John, son of John and Mary (Gilbert) Root, married Mary 
Brown and remained on his father's place nntil 1S40, when he 
removed with his family to Hanovery a little way south of 
Buffalo, X. Y. It is said that his son, John, bom in Berlin, 
ISoS, was the sixth John Roc't in snccession. He became a 
lawyer, in practice in, Buffalo, where he died of consumption, 
unmarried. 

Elihu Root, Secretary of State, is a descendant of the first 
John Root, of Farmington. 

After IS-IrO, the John Root house was occupie<i by Daniel 
Tuller, a Second Adventist preacher, so many years that it 
came to be known as the Ttiller place. 

Mrs. Tuller, who was a fine woman, helped to meet die 
family expenses by teaching school in her home district, at 
first, it is said, in a school house that stood on the west side 
of tile road, southerly from the Edward Deming bouse. One 
ni^t, after the school was dismissed, a teacher, not Mrs. Tuller, 
deposited on the entry fioor a pile of ct?Id ash.es. The next 
morning nothing remained of the btdl'iing but a pile of hot 
ashes. 



THE KOOT FAMILY 123 

Mrs. Tuller taught as lato as in the fifties in the new school 
house on the corner south of Lardncr Deming's, and her pupils, 
to this day, speak of her with affection. 

The Tullers had a son, Baxter, who won the admiration of 
the school girls by standing on his head. They were very 
sorry for him because his father, a st^rn man, used to shut him 
up in a barrel when he was naughty. 

When the Tullers moved away, Edward Deming bought their 
place. It was rented to Elder Joseph ^lorse when his son 
Joseph, who now lives in East Berlin, was six months old. 

Stephen Belden, Joseph Xortli, John Y. ^Yilcox, and others 
lived there. When Cyrus Root, Jr., was first married, he 
rented the place and it was made quite attractive with large 
windows, a porch and fresh paint. 

Luke Foiren was the next owner of whom we have record. 
He lost his health, and his brother-in-law, August Splettstoeszer, 
came into possession of the property. Soon after that the house 
was burned and a new one was built in its place. 

While Mr. Tuller was in Berlin, he used to hold services 
in the houses of the neighborhood. Mrs. Cornelia Deming 
Stowe remembers that he came to her father's house, and that 
he hung pictures and charts all around the walls to use in 
illustrating his subject. 

By careful study of the prophesies, the Adventists demon- 
strated that the world was to come to an end in ISiS. The 
montli and day were set, some say it was April 23, others give 
October as the time. 

Deacon Charles Webster remembers that when he was a lad, 
a camp meeting was held, a good three-quarters of a mile away 
from his fathers house and they at home could hear the sing- 
ing across the hills — words as well as tune — so lusty were the 
voices. One favorite shouting piece, as well as can be recalled, 

ran this way : 

We'll all go up in a chariot of fire; 

I long to sing Hosanna, — 
The devil's mad and I am glad; 

I long to sing Hosanna. 
In 1S43 

I long to sing Hosanna. 



121 KIST02Y OF BESIXS" 

Cvms Webster, farker of Ciiarles. weni: over to the camp 
to hear one of the aermoas* in which the preacher declareii 
that as sure as the Bible was tme the world would c-r-me to an 
end in lS4o. 

.1 :r: liHT C'ruLc-t wrih an -". - '.i: —'."-'.- 

, , - in lenjzxi- appeared in the i^ " _: :-ine wimin 

32.000 miles of the son. and a >Tfghr change in ife course 
wir^nld have eansed a collision. 

The Adventists "--"■—— xj^j^ T^^e comet was sent to destroj 
the earth by iire. ' the righteoos wonld be can^r Tip 

into hea.ven- 

: ; ; :_ . ; :.irs ox X . . _ . . _ : _ . . ^N'ow. in iS-i-i . _^_:i 

were seen fiiekering- in graveyards and yellow stneaks crt^esei 
the tombstones- As the time drew near, great excitenLaLE pre- 
vailed, even -::~"T ----'-— —j. ii~"; :; "T". — -— ~_r---- 

eneii nearly ■: - - - r, : _ _ - _ ^ - 

the ccnversati - . to sc^ ontgfde the doca" 

after dark. 

The story is told oz _ _. : ^_, :^. -^— - ^ eooM ao 'ap ^ 

did Elijih- He monnte^i a pine tree in his yard and in aghr 
of a crowd, tkrew up his ar^rs — and eame to the grwiwti wisi. 
" " a b-mise. 

- -fs Pannie Eobbins rr_ __ r^ that in "Wediersfiidd. "whea 
the appointed day eame. their nexr ::•:? n^^ighbor. a vay 
er . 'T'S h.-fTiT^ a 

1^ _..--. v.- r : ■--_:. : , ^ - _-- _:. _, - ,ei back a nd 

forth in his •■irivewav. 

A 1 f this sect, an estimable lady, who lired in. Chris- 

tian ~ ■■" - ~. - "' ' :' a TnATT wh'' '^-py, 

was a ppTsper. - _.___ __: ^"i i neir^:- __ r a 

convert to lie new decErine. s - - :if«. and invnsd 

hk •■- - -hren~ ro -:■ -_ ■ . which they 

and 5" - ^towrrV Z- . " 

and sold rags, took smallpox, and died in an attic. 
Ai. ' - •• -_^ inthe -'" _ ^ - - - - - . - , 

ot CLtr She w_- __. __ ^ .: _::_z 



THE BOOT FAMILY 



125 



girls, to a candy pull. While they were having their fun the 
father of their young hostess, an Adventist, came into the room 
and reproved them for their hilarity. He said they ought to 
be singing hymns. 

Children had to suffer persecution for their parents' belief. 
A boy and girl kept at home from school, to be ready for the 
eventful day, were confronted on their return by caricatures 
on the blackboard which represented their ascension, and the 
girl was teased to wear her robe to school. What wonder that 
she was deeply hurt and that she cried ! 

Stephen Belden, when a little fellow, heard his father and 
mother talk of the great change at hand. One day the child 
went into a blacksmith shop and said, ''Did you know that 
the world was coming to an end?" The only reply was a 
stunning oath from the blacksmith. 

The year 1843 passed, and a new calculation set the time for 
the Advent forward to October 22, 1S4-4. Other dates have 
been made. Xot many years since, a lad in this town when 
told that on a certain day the end would come, let himself 
down into a well to escape the general doom. 

Antoinette Root, or Xettie as she was called, the youngest 
of the four daughters of Timothy Root, was a skillful organist. 
She played the large cabinet organ in the Worthington Congre- 
gational Church for some years, and then accepted a position 
as organist at the Baptist church in Xew Britain. She was 
married to Waldo Curtis and went to Winsted, Conn., where 
she still lives, a widow, with one daughter, Maud, who was 
recently married. 

Christian Lane road, as at first laid out, ran east of the old 
church and of the Seth Doming house. Later, its course was 
changed. 

Vol. II of Berlin Land Records contains the following peti- 
tion: 

To the Inhabitants of the Town of Berlin to be convened in Town 
meeting on Monday the 11th of Instant April (ISl-i) the petition 
of the Subscribers. Inhabitants of the town of Berlin humbly 
Shusith ( ?) that the road leading from John Eoot to Capt. Seth 
Deming Is very crooked and lyeth across ground Extreamly Bad to 



12^ KrSTX>ST OF BERLIN 

ivi55j for a Cocs-idatabfe put of the y>eAr and timi iui *lter:auoii tiilvr^at 
trith but T«7- Kttie expwic*? 5o the tovm tbat wvHiKi W very 
for Ae Inhabitants to sr« their Childwn to SoiKxxl ami 
:c: .i Cv- ■-:■". ■ 'Htan^f to gv^ to and froui 

r..tv:::vg ;.> • .. ;•> to v. the Sub««crtbier5 th«x?tor«? 

praj- said tovm to direct their S*4eotztwii to c>p«?ix a rv>ad frvHU near 

< s dw^lin^ hv^iK«e In Wort'- r - S^th Deniin^** 

. ":;o«s»» and cvHu^^^sate for uj^n^e: of anv 

-^ Sohool distxic; cr »iiiv oii^vr vrar th^v shaU 

- .... Vovm. 

(Si^ned^ Samiiel Port^-. Seth IVniing. Thomas Gilhrtt. Mos^ 

Gilberts Thomas Booth. Asah^ Blin. Jose^ Wri^t, Aiiel BolvWa. 

Xomian Porter. John Gvvdrich. Jr.. Abel Xorth. Hesekiah Staulov. 

Thomas Hart 5, 

The RovH familv haw some traditious v>f the Indians* 
The ned man vras fond of the white mau*$ cider, aud often, 
V V. 11 the door vras opened in response to a soft knook. au 
1 . um vrould appear and say in a low voice, "Got any cider r" 
The people used to giv^ them a little because, if offended, the 
Indians would stand off and run full tilt at the door and try 
to break it in. Those doors wiere double planked, double 
barr^. and sometimes driven full of spikef, Dwight Root 
remembers hearing that once a company of Indians came along 
and asked his gr;. " ' . » - • - - — ^ . , ^^^j^j.^ jj^ ^ ■ • -' _^ 

they cxniki have . - . They pro. ; 

to. drank the cider and went away quietly, but fell to fighting 
before they wen? out of sight of the house. 

It was a common occurrence to see an Indian peeking around 
the comer of the Root bam. 

CVrus Root> Jr., now of Was-hington. D. C. givt^ by letter 
the following incidents : " Alvut that Indian story. As I heard 
it, there were in Cv»nnoct-icut two tribes who were at enmity. 
One of thcise Indians was helping my ancestor. I think it w.-is 
my great-grandfather. John Root, with his annual spring clean- 
ing of the barn vard. when he saw in the distance one of his 
foe* approaching. Instantly he dri>ppevl down in the filth of 
the yard and told the man to cover him up with the litter. 
Xo sooner was this done than the other Indian came to the 



'I'llK K-OOT I \M1I.V 127 

yard and aslanl if tli(\v had soon a man of such a lrih(>, nicn- 
tioninii' the name, ])ass hy. Wo was iuiswci-cd in llic iifiiiilivc, 
for he liad not 'passed l>_v.' 

Dnriuii' my fatlicr's boyhood (hivs, ihc cnrly davs id" the 
iiinctconth i-ontury, Indians frocpR'nlly ciniio to his fiithi'i'\s 
house boji'iiinu; for oi(K r. Window shaiU's and Minds W(>ro liitU' 
usod in thosi' days. My father rrhitt'd to uic th;it one ni^ht. 
his parents wi-ro away and ho was h'ft at. homo to oaro for the 
younger ehihlriMi, 'V\\cy wim'o sitlini:; in (hirknoss lieoauso ihey 
wcreafraitl to have a lii;ht. SuchKMdy a ni;in with ;i (hisky face 
appeared at the wintlow and snid: 'I S(>e you, vou are at home.' 
Happily, tlie Indian turned and went awav, nincli to my 
father's relief. 

People were eareful not. to olTend the Indians, i'or willi thcii- 
long; memories and rovongcd'ul dis|)ositious, one never knew 
when the blow mii;ht fall." 

]\[r. Root in his letter gives otlnu- reminisecnecvs of interest 
as related to him by his father, Cynis lioot. 

lieferring to the Kev. ^[r. Johns he says: "He was a Welsh- 
num and an oxooedingly arbitrary man. In those days ov(>rv- 
one was oxiuH'ted to attend divine service, and no oi-diiiary 
excuse would answtn- I'or absence from 'meeting.' lie was 
accustomed to g"o among his parishi(UUM-s and scold them loi- 
not 'going to meeting.' A elergymaji's word was ac('e])ted 
without protest. It. would ui>\-er do ti> have any back talk 
with a minister of the gos})(d. 

CMiildriMi u\oeting the lu>v. .Johns ou tlu^ highway had (o stop; 
the girls to nud^o a low courtesy, and the boys to remove the 
hat and reverently lx)W. He considered himself too diguitied 
to return the salutation, but woe be to the boy or girl who 
failed to give him the ])roper salutation. The offense^ was duly 
rej>ort(Ml to the |)anMits and an aitplieation of the nnj would 
follow. Sometimes boys, rather than meet liiiu, woulil make a 
circuit through the fields." 

Mr. Hoot brings to mind an incidtuit. of tlu^ sixties, which 
illustrates the strong character of dosiah Kobbins, father of 
]\Iiss Fannie Ivobbins. 



128 HISTOEY OF BEELIN 

It was the first Monday in April, and Mr. Bobbins was 
driving over to Kensington to cast his vote for State officers 
who were then, and np to 1876, elected in the spring. Xear 
where the driving park now is, he overtook an old man plod- 
ding along with a cane through the mud, which in those days 
was knee-deep in places. Mr. Robbins halted and asked the 
man to ride. The conversation turned at once to politics and 
the passenger began to rant about Lincoln. Mr. Robbins 

stopped his horse and said : ^'Mr. , get right out of my 

carriage, I will not carry to the polls a man who talks as you 
have done about so good a man as Abraham Lincoln." 



Opposite the Timothy Root house, on the east side of the 
way, was a "Lee house," long since gone to decay, and the 
piece of land next south of the schoolhouse, on this street, 
was known as the "Lee lot." 

John Lee, emigrant, settler in Farmington, married in 1658, 
Mary, daughter of Stephen Hart of Farmington. John Lee 
and Stephen Hart both owned land in Great Swamp, and 
Stephen Lee, son of John, with his nephew Jonathan Lee, 
came over this side of the mountain to improve the property. 

Captain Stephen Lee married October 1, 1690, Elizabeth 
Royce of Wallingford, and they had ten children. His name 
stands first after the minister as one of the seven male members, 
and Elizabeth was one of the three women who were organized 
into the Christian Lane church December 10, 1712. 

Stephen Lee was captain of the militia, and was one of the 
most influential men in the society. 

His inscription in the Christian Lane cemetery reads as 
follows : 

Stephen Lee, one of ye first settlers of ye society and church of 
Christ in Kensington, etc. d. June 7, 1753, in the 87th year of his age. 

Elizabeth, his wife, died May 3, 1760. 

Jonathan Lee, son of John, grandson of John the emigrant, 
received from his father a tract of land in Great Swamp, 



THE EOOT FAMIT.Y 



129 



which was known as "the Island" for the reason that it was 
higher than the surrounding land. He was chosen rate-maker 
and lister of the parish in 1714, and was made deacon of the 
church. In 1716 he was seated in the "3d pue" of the meet- 
ing house. By trade he was a blacksmith. He married June 
4 1713, Mary Koot. Their six children were named Mary, 
Elizabeth, Lucy, Ruth, John, and Eunice. 

The gravestones of Jonathan Lee and Mary, his wife, in 
the Christian Lane cemetery, bear the following inscriptions : 

Deacon Jonathan Lee, b. Mar. 20, 1686, d. Jan. 16th, 1758. 
Mary Root, widow of Dea. Jonatlian Lee d. Sep. 14th, 1764. 

Ensign John Lee, only son of Jonathan and Mary Root Lee, 
born April 20, 1725, married May 7, 1752, Sarah Cole. They 
were members of the first Kensington church, of which he was 
one of the deacons. They came into the Worthington church 
at the time of its organization in 1775, and he was chosen a 
member of the church committee. May 1, 1776. Deacon John 
Lee died January 21, 1796, aged seventy. Sarah, his wife, 
died April 5, 1800, at the age of seventy. Their graves are in 
the Bridge Cemetery. Three of their sons, Jonathan, Orrin, 
and Samuel, were soldiers in the Revolutionary War. 
Jonathan, born October 3, 1755, died in the service. 
Orrin, born October 13, 1757, was a drummer. By occupa- 
tion he was a blacksmith. He married December 2, 1784, 
Charlotte, daughter of Captain Samuel Hart, sister of Mrs. 
Emma Hart Willard. He represented the town of Berlin in 
the State legislature in 1805. It is said that he removed to 
Granby, Conn. 

Samuel was taken prisoner and confined in one of the prison 
ships in :N'ew York Harbor, where he was so nearly starved 
that when he had the good fortune to catch a rat, he declared 
it to be the sweetest meat he ever tasted. 

Lieutenant John, the youngest son of Deacon John Lee, mar- 
ried November 6, 1789, Mary Hart, another sister of Mrs. Wil- 
lard. They lived in Blue Hills, Kensington. Their daughter 
Lucy was the wife of Albert Xorton. 
9 



130 HISTORY OF BEELIlSr 

On the way through Christian Lane one place was not men- 
tioned. Down the street that now ends at the river, east of 
the schoolhouse, on the south side of the way, there stands a 
house now occupied by George H. Kipple, which was built 
by Linsley Austin. He bought the lot for twenty-five dollars, 
March 3, 1846, from Cyrus Koot, who stipulated in the deed 
that if Mr. Austin should wish to sell, he, Mr. Eoot, should 
have an opportunity to take the place at a fair price. 

George Austin, brother of Linsley, lived there afterward, 
and John Hudson Webber, whose first wife, Laura Lucretia, 
was a sister of the Austins, owned the place for five years 
previous to 1858. 

The Mattabesett at that point, in summer time, was about 
twenty feet wide, and two or three feet deep. 

John H. Webber, Jr., who was three years old when the 
family moved there, relates the following thrilling incident: 
One day his sister, Mary, started to go across the lots to visit 
Uncle George, who then lived up on the Hartford turnpike. 
As she was going over the water on the plank that served as a 
footbridge, a furious woodchuck came out of his hole in the 
bank and chased her. The child was terribly frightened and ran 
screaming back to the house. Her father, with an old-fashioned 
pitchfork, came to her rescue, ran it through the animal, pinned 
him to the ground, and told Mary to go on her way. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Tlie Deming Family. — Jolin Deming, the Settler. 

There were other families in Christian Lane, to whom we 
must now turn. 

The Demings were early on that ground. John Deming, 
settler at Wethersfield, in 1635, was a prominent and influential 
man. He married about 1637, Honor Treat, daughter of 
Richard Treat, brother of Governor Robert Treat. 

Their ten children were : John ( Sergeant) , Jonathan 
(Sergeant), Samuel, David, Ebenezer, Rachel, Frances, Marv, 
Hannah, and Sarah. 

John Deming, by his will, proven jSTovember 21, 1705, gives 
to his son Jonathan his fifty-acre lot at the west side of the 
bounds. 

Sergeant Jonathan Deming, born 1639, married first, I^ovem- 
ber 21, 1660, Sarah Graves, who died June 5, 1668, the day 
of the birth of her fourth child. 

The baby, a girl, was named ''Comfort." She became the 
wife of Nathaniel Beckley, son of Richard, of Beckley Quar- 
ter, and they — Comfort and Nathaniel Beckley — were the 
ancestors of many Berlin families. 

Jonathan Deming married second, December 25, 1673, 
Elizabeth Gilbert, and they had eight children. The names 
of the twelve were : Jonathan ; Sarah, mai*ried Jonathan Riley, 
uncle of Squire Roger Riley; Mary, married Joseph Smith; 
Comfort, married Nathaniel Beckley. By second marriage: 
Elusia, shortened to "Luce," married John Edwards ; Eliza- 
beth, married Richard Beckley, grandson of Richard the settler ; 
Thomas, Charles, Benjamin, Jacob, Mary, and Anna. 

Sergeant Jonathan Deming's home lot of one and one-half 
acres was on Broad Street, Wethersfield. He died January 8, 
1699-1700. Elizabeth, his wife, died September 3, 1714. 



132 HISTORY OF BEELIN 

According to Wethersfield land records, Thomas Morton bought 
of Jacob Deming, March 12, 1712-13, a tract of land at Rocky 
Hill "formerly Jonathan Deming's (father of Jacob, and who 
had removed back to Far)." We are coming near home now. 
According to Stiles, Jacob Deming (Jonathan, John), born 
December 20, 1689, married N'ovember 3, 1709, Dinah (daugh- 
ter of Josiah) Churchill, who died October 3, 1751, aged sixty- 
nine. 

In the Christian Lane burying ground is this inscription : 

Mrs. Dinah wife of Mr. Jacob Deming, died Oct. 3, 1751, M 69. 

When the meeting house at Great Swamp was seated, in 
1716-17, Jacob Deming was given a place in the second seat, 
along with Samuel Peeke, Steven Cellsey, and Caleb Couls. 

At a meeting of the Society of Kensington December 7, 1730, 
Jacob Deming was appointed one of "a committee to order 
the prudentials for a school for this Society for the year 
ensuing." 

On the minister's rate bill for 1720, Jacob Deming received 
credit for "ll/o bush corn & 11/2 pt a Is. 2y2d." 

There was another Jacob Deming — Ensign Jacob, born 1713, 
who, with his wife, Lucy, joined the Worthington church in 
1775. This Jacob died July 29, 1791, aged seventy-seven 
years. His wife, Lucy, died March 7, 1802, aged eighty-one. 
Their graves are in the Beckley cemetery. The births of two 
of the children of the first Jacob and his wife, Dinah, are 
recorded in Wethersfield; that of their son Moses, born Sep- 
tember 8, 1720, is recorded at Farmington. 

Moses Deming and his wife, Sarah (Cole), were members in 
1756 of the first church of Kensington and they joined the 
Wortbington church February, 1775. 

Sarah (Cole) Deming died December 25, 1802, aged eighty- 
four. "Mr. Moses Deming, died January 16, 1795, aged 
seventy-four years and four months." Their graves are in 
Christian Lane. 

Of the children of Moses Deming and Sarah Cole, his wife: 
Seth, born 1749, married Hannah Gilbert; Sarah, born 1753, 
was the second wife of Lieutenant Roger Riley; Anna, born 



THE DEMING FAMILY 133 

1755, was the second wife of Landlord Elijah Loveland; 
Lardner, born 1765, married first, Mary (daughter Solomon) 
Dunham, who died February 5, 1815, aged forty-six. He 
married second, Sarah Griswold (Williams), who died October 
29, 1852, aged seventy-three years. Their graves are in the 
Bridge Cemetery at Worthington. 

There were two other sons, Moses and John. 

Land records show that Moses Deming, Sr., deeded land in 
Christian Lane to his son Moses, January 4, 1792 ; to his 
son Seth, 1784-1792, and to his son Lardner, 1789, 1792, and 
1794. 

(Thus far, this Deming line, with the help of Miss Julia 
Roys and Miss Ruth Galpin, has been constructed from many 
sources, a little here and a little there, without the help of a 
local family history. "We believe it to be correct.) 

Moses Deming, son of Jacob, conveyed in 1789, to his son, 
Moses, Jr., thirty-six acres of land with dwelling house thereon, 
bounded east on Samuel ]Srorth, west and south on highway, 
north on Charles I^ott, reserving to himself use and improve- 
ment of north lot which was his father's. 

We do not know anything more of this Moses Deming, Jr. 
From the description of the property conveyed to him it is 
inferred to be that long known as the Edward Deming corner, 
where the meeting house formerly stood, and it is probable that 
Seth Deming, grandfather of Edward A., came into possession 
of his brother's place. 

Right here is a good opportunity to say that the memorial 
tablet placed near this corner, which has been credited to the 
Berlin chapter, D. A. R., was the gift of members of the Ruth 
Hart chapter of Meriden, Conn. 

A statement has been made that Roger Riley, elected town 
clerk in 1798, continued in office, with the exception of one 
year, until 1814. It has been found that the last year of 
Squire Riley's service was in 1816, and that in the meantime, 
Sylvester Wells and Seth Deming served, each one year. 

The town meeting reports for 1804 were signed by Seth 
Deming, Town Clerk. It may be of interest to know what were 
some of the exciting questions discussed at those earl}- town 



134 HISTORY OF BERLIISr 

meetings. Roads were uppermost, then came the use of the 
"commons." 

At a meeting held January' 25, 1803, it was voted: 

1st, that the town will do something in restraining Creatures from 
running at large in the Highway. Voted, that all horses and mules 
shall be Restrained from running on the Highways at large. 

Voted 2nd, The selectmen with Ezra Scovell, James North Esq., 
and Jedediah Sage, are appointed a committee whose duty it shall 
be to designate the poor people that shall have liberty to have one 
cow Each in the Highway. 

Voted, further that every man who is not a voter in any of our 
meetings But pays taxes and does Military duty shall have liberty 
to have one Cow go at large on the Highway in the day time only. 

Voted, that all horn cattle shall be restrained from running at 
Large in the Highway Excepting the Cow Belonging to the poor 
people and them to be designated by the aforesaid committee who 
are appointed for that purpose. 

Again February 25, 1803 : 

Vot«d that all Hog kind may go at large in the Highway through 
the year they being well yoked and a good ring in their nose. 

(Editor Beale : — Would it not be a good idea to revive this 
law to apply to some of the drivers of automobiles on our modern 
highways ?) 

Voted : that sheep shall not run at large on the Highways without 
a keeper. 

Voted: that geese shall be restrained from going In the Highway 
without some person to take care of, and keep them out of mischief. 

Voted: that all creatures running at large & which are hereby 
prohibited shall be subject to a penalty or fine as follows : 

For all horse kind and for Horn Cattle. Each one dollar. And 
for Sheep one shilling pr head. And for Geese Nine pence pr head. 

Thirteen haywards were appointed at this time, and the town 
clerk was directed to "put the doings of the meeting into some 
publick newspaper." Another meeting was held April 18, 
1803, "For purpose of making By Laws for restraining Horses, 
Mules, Cattle, Swine, Sheep, & Geese, or any of them from going 
at Large." 



THE DEMING FAMILY 135 

This first stringent effort at village improvement seems not 
to have met vpitli approval. The next year, April 9, 1804, it 
was voted : "that Laws md April 18, 1803 for purpose of 
restraining Horses, Mules, Cattle, Swine, sheep & Geese from 
going at Large on the commons of this Town be repealed and 
be no longer in force. 

'Test Setii Deming Town Clerk" 

In Vol. 1, page 514, of the old Berlin Town Records appears 
the following entry : 

Seth Peming was born May 21st, 1Y48. Hannah Gilbert daughter 
of Mr. Ebenr Gilbert of Middletown was bom April 7th, 1758; was 
married together 11th of Jtme 1777. 
Children : 

Hannah bom 31 March 1778. 
Seth born 28 March 1781. 
Fenn Wadsworth born 13 January 1783. 
Demas bom 22 March 1787. 
Sophia born 10 Febmary 1793. 
Capt. Seth Deming died March 11, 1827, aged 79. 
Hannah widow of Capt. Seth Deming died Feb. 9, 1838 aged 79. 
Sophia dau. of Capt. Seth and Hannah Deming died July 31st 
1826 aged 32. 

They were buried opposite the Christian Lane cemetery in 
a lot on the Deming farm. The graves were enclosed by a high 
brick wall, which was afterward replaced by Demas Deming 
with an iron fence. 

Sophia Galpin, born September 4, 1783, was a daughter of 
Deacon Joseph Galpin, who lived opposite the house now known 
as the Doctor Brandegeo place. Sophia was gifted, gay, fond 
of music and dancing, and withal very beautiful in person. 
Although her father was a deacon, the young girl managed to 
attend balls, where she found many admirers. When she was 
fourteen, Seth Deming, ten years her senior, made up his mind 
that he must have her for his wife, and for fear that he might 
lose her if he waited until she grew to womanhood before 
speaking, he obtained her promise then, and the two were 



136 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

betrothed. Soon afterward a yoimg lawyer met Sophia and fell 
desperately in love with her, but as she was bound to another, 
she refused to accept the attentions of her new admirer. The 
despair of the poor fellow, in consequence, was so great that 
he lost his reason and died in an insane asylum. Seth Deming 
and Sophia Galpin were married January 29, 1804, 

Their children were Seth, Edward, Cornelia M., Julia, 
Albert, and Catharine. Mrs. Deming played the organ in the 
old church before her marriage and for a year or so afterward. 
She was a sweet singer and as they say, her children took after 
her. As they grew up there were five of them at one time in 
the church choir. 

The daughter Catharine died of scarlet fever at the age of 
twenty-one. Albert was for a time a member of the firm of 
Plumb & Deming at the store recently conducted by Henry IST. 
Galpin. Afterward he removed to Wisconsin. He had ten 
children. 

Cornelia M. Deming, second wife of Lyman Dunbar, lived 
in Buffalo. 

Julia married and went to Canada. Edward A. Deming 
went to La Harpe, 111., bought a prairie farm, built a log house, 
married, and had five children. As he prospered he built a 
frame house, the first in the town, which is now a large city. 

After the death of Seth Deming, Sr., his son Seth lived on 
the old place at the corner, where the first meeting house once 
stood. After the sons and daughters had all left them, Mr. and 
Mrs. Deming rented the farm for a year and went west to 
make a long visit. Mr. Deming spent a year with Edward 
at La Harpe, while Mrs. Deming stayed with her daughter in 
Buffalo. 

A stone in the Bridge Cemetery at Worthington bears the 
following inscription : 

The grave of Sophia wife of Seth Deming, d. Feb. 23d, 1876, aged 
92 years. Also in memory of Seth Deming, aged 65 years, and Bruce, 
his grandson and son of Albert Deming, aged 9 years. Drowned 
in Lake Erie, August 12, 1845. 



THE DEMING FAMILY 137 

Mr. Deming, when he started to come home from the west, 
had with him two children of his son Albert, Ambrose, aged 
nine, and Catharine, aged twelve, who were coming east to be 
educated. 

On the night of August 12, 1845, they were on Lake Erie, 
bound for Buffalo, where they were to stop for Mrs. Deming. 
Toward morning their boat began to race with another, which 
ran into them and cut a large hole in the men's cabin. Every 
passenger in that cabin was dro^vned. The women were saved. 
Catharine was taken from a window in her nightdress. 

x\fter the death of his father, Edward Deming sold his farm 
and made arrangements to come back east in the spring of 
1846, to care for his mother in the Christian Lane home. 

During the winter preceding, a terrible sickness prevailed 
about La Harpe and when Mr. Deming started on his way he 
carried in his arms a little wailing sick boy, James, while 
Cornelia clung to his side. These were all that were left of 
the famih'. Cornelia, now Mrs. Stowe, has a vivid remem- 
brance of that long journey, of the canal boats and of the 
sympathy expressed for them. Little James refused to leave 
his father, but the women used to take care of Cornelia. The 
children were dressed all in black, even to black pantalets. 
That jSTew England air would save the life of the sick child 
proved a vain hope. He died in two weeks after they reached 
Berlin. 

Edward Augustus Deming married second, January 10, 
1850, Miss Betsey M. Morse of Litchfield, Conn. They had 
four children, a daughter and then twins, a boy and girl, died 
in infancy. The fourth, Edward, now lives in Hartford. 

Mr. Deming disposed of the homestead in 1862 to Rush B. 
Whitmore, who was the first husband of his daughter Cornelia. 
Their two sons, Arthur P. and Xorman A. Whitmore, made 
five generations who dwelt under the same roof. 

The Demings obeyed the Horace Greeley injunction, ''Go 
West, young man. Arthur P. Whitmore is engaged in gold 
and silver mining at Denver, Colo., and is the owner of several 



138 HISTOEY OF BERLIN 

claims. His brother, Norman A. Whitmore, is a railroad man 
in i^evada. 

Mr. Deming came to the village and bought the house now 
the parsonage, where his wife died November 19, 1886. Then, 
after the second marriage of his daughter, he broke up and 
spent his declining days with his two children. He died at 
the home of Mrs. Stowe in Cromwell, June 15, 1896, in his 
ninety-second year. Mr. Whitmore worked the Deming farm 
eight years and then sold to Luke Foiren. ISTow, after passing 
through the hands of several owners, it has shared the fate of 
other places in the vicinity and is a part of the New Britain 
sewerage system. The house is filled with Italians. Mrs. 
Stowe remembers that when she was a little girl her grand- 
mother Sophia used to send her with pies and cakes over to 
Aunt Molly Gilbert's. Cornelia would stop for her friend 
Adeline Gilbert to go with her, and they would stay half a 
day with Aunt Molly, who seemed to like to have them there. 
She was bent double and her hair was white as snow. She kept 
a great axe beside the door for defense in case she was molested 
at night. Her cow was stabled close to the house, and the hens 
sat on the table with her where she ate. When Cornelia came 
home she would give her some fresh eggs tied up in a rag. 
Mrs. Stowe remembers too that her grandmother used to send 
her over to the town house with delicacies for a worthy sick 
man there. 

Still another memory is of an old forsaken house east of the 
Demings, across the river, back of tw^o great maple trees, where 
children played, and where tramps slept at night. That house 
was torn down sixty years ago. Grandma Deming always 
called it the ''Steele place." Can any one tell us if that was 
the home of Dr. Joseph Steele, on whose land the meeting 
house was built ? 

Dr. Steele had a son Ebenezer, who was a Revolutionary 
soldier. He married August 10, 1749, Sarah (daughter of 
David) Sage. 

According to Andrews, ''She was the mother of thirteen 
children, from eight of whom, at the time of her death, March 



THE DEMIXG FAMILY 139 

16, 1823, had descended seventy grandchildren, one hundred 
and seventy-one great-grandchildren, and twenty-four great- 
great-grandchildren, making then in all, 278." Ebenezer 
Steele and his wife lived in this vicinity until after their chil- 
dren were born, when they moved to ^ew Britain. Both lived 
to the age of ninety-four. 

Sixty years ago, diagonally across the way, south from the 
Steele place, there were foundations of another old house, all 
overgrown with cinnamon roses, tiger lilies, bell flowers, and 
"Bouncing Bets." 

Grandma Deming said the house was burned. Some woman 
lived there who loved flowers. Who was she ? 

Further research has thrown more light on the Deming 
family. Seth Deming, Sr., w^hose grave is in the small enclosure 
opposite the Christian Lane cemetery, was a soldier in the 
War of the Revolution, and was promoted from the rank of 
lieutenant to that of captain in the 5t.h Regiment, Light Horse 
Cavalry. 

By a deed drawn in 1784, Moses Deming gave to his son 
Seth, land in Worthington Parish, "bounded east on Wethers- 
field line, south and west on Highway to extend so far north 
from the south highway as to make twelve acres, together with 
the dwelling house he lives in, and the bam thereon standing, 
which lands I judge to be worth £108 lawful money." This 
disposes of the theory that Seth bought out his brother Moses, 
whom we must place over in Beckley Quarter. This Moses 
died in Whitestown, K". Y., in 1809. 

The inventory of his estate included the following item : 
One sixty-fifth part of Berlin Academy, appraised at $10. 

In 1790 Moses Deming, Sr., deeded another tract of four- 
teen acres, to his son Seth, described as being land that he, 
Moses, bought of the committee appointed to sell highways and 
common lands. 

Hannah, daughter of Moses Deming, was the wife of Abijah 
Porter, a Revolutionary soldier. She died in 1829, aged sixty- 
nine. He married second, Sarah Hubbard, widow of Hart 
Hulbert. They lived in Beckley Quarter on the cross street 



140 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

next north of Beckley station. The house which stood on the 
north side of the way was burned about the year 1845. 

The Jacob Deming mentioned, with his wife Lucy, was a 
brother of Moses, son of Jacob. Lucy was the daughter of 
Hezekiah Hart. 

Shortly before the death of Jacob Deming, Jr., July 29, 
1791, he deeded land to Israel Deming, as expressed: "In 
consideration of the love, esteem and affection I have and do 
bear to my cousin Israel Deming." 

This Israel Deming was the great-grandfather of Deacon 
Francis Deming of Worthington village. Mr. Deming's line 
runs back through Israel, Abraham, Daniel, and Thomas, to 
Jonathan and John of Wethersfield. 

Demas Deming, youngest son of Capt. Seth Deming, born 
March 22, 1787, was a soldier in the War of 1812, with the 
rank of lieutenant, stationed at New London. He afterward 
went into business in Baltimore with General Ripley, father 
of the Confederate general of that name. 

In 1822 he went to Terre Haute, Indiana, where at that 
time there were only a few log cabins. ]^ow, his son Demas is 
president of the First l^ational Bank of the city of over 36,000 
inhabitants. Demas Deming was so fortunate in his invest- 
ments and business that he became what was uncommon in 
his day, a millionaire. Every summer he brought his wife, 
with four children and two servants, back to Christian Lane 
to spend a few weeks in the home of his birth. He died at 
Terre Haute, March 3, 1865. 

Fenn Wadsworth, born January 13, 1783, second son of 
Seth Deming, Sr., and his wife, Hannah Gilbert, served in 
the War of 1812. He married Sally Loveland. He was a 
physician. 

Moses Deming, in 1792, "for parental regard and affection," 
deeded to his son Lardner "a tract of land containing twenty 
acres more or less, bounded south on highway; east on Isaac 
and Abel ISTorth; west on my own land; north on Charles 
ISTott . . . which said piece of land I estimate to be worth 
£117, lawful money." The father reserved for his lifetime the 
use of wood and feed on said land. 



THE DEMIXG FAMILY 141 

Mr. Deminc; was now three-score and ten years old and he 
seemed to be settling his own estate. We are trying to find the 
house where ho lived. 

In 1791 the committee for exchanging highways order "Mr. 
Moses Deming to open the highway leading from sd Deming's 
to Seth North's, and that sd Deming be allowed a year to open 
and fence sd highway." 

The road east from Seth Deming's must be mnch older than 
this, to allow time for houses built thereon to have fallen into 
decay. As long ago as 1716, the town of Wethersfield ordered 
a highway through Great Swamp village. The road that runs 
east around the little schoolhouse, now ends at the Mattabcsett 
beyond the house of George H. Ripple, but years ago it extended 
on easterly across the lots until it came out on the highway 
near the old Isaac ISTorth house, now owned by Aaron M. Bell. 
When Moses Deming was ordered to open this road nothing was 
said about bridges. Teams forded the river and foot passengers 
crossed on logs or waded as they chose. 

The Lardner Deming house stood next north of the school- 
house. In 1814, Mr. Deming borrowed $400 of Edmond Bol- 
dero and secured the debt by a mortgage deed on his place, 
described as "bounded ISTorth on Seth Deming, East on my own 
land and partly on Chas 'Nott, South on highway. West on high- 
way with dwelling house and other buildings thereon. Being 
the Homestead where I now live." 

In 1804 Lardner Deming was appointed collector of the 
State tax, an office of great responsibility. He married first, 
April 5, 1787, Mary Dunham, and they had six or seven chil- 
dren. William Riley, the eldest son, married Eunice Strong, 
daughter of Priest jSTathan Fenn. They removed to J^ew Lyme, 
Ohio. Their son, John Deming, invented the celebrated 
Deming pump. A daughter of Lardner and Mary Deming was 
married to William Crane of Augusta, Ga. Their descendants 
are still living in that city. 

Jane Augusta Deming, youngest daughter of Lardner Deming 
and his second wife, Sarah Griswold (Williams), married Mr. 
Ketcham of Birmingham, Ala. ; she died there in 1882. A 
daughter, Mrs. Margaret Ketcham Ward, and her family, are 



142 HISTORY OF BERLIN" 

residents of Birmingham at the present time. George Griswold 
Deming, own brother of Mrs. Ketcham, went south with her 
and died a few years since at Rome, Ga. 

Mrs. Lardner Deming had a daughter, ISTancy Williams, 
by her first marriage, who became the wife of Deacon Cyprian 
Goodrich of Kensington. Their two sons, William and Henry 
Goodrich, live in Philadelphia. Lardner Deming died Decem- 
ber 6, 1855, aged ninety. His farm, with the old red house, 
was sold to Albert Belden of Rocky Hill, a Second Adventist. 

Mr. Belden, in the belief that the world was coming to an 
end in 1843, had disposed of his property, almost giving it 
away, and now that the calculation had failed he had to start 
anew. His children had not been sent to school, for the reason 
that they would have no use for an education, but they felt the 
loss of it keenly as they came to maturity. Mr. Belden tore 
the old house down, after a few years, and built anew on the 
same site. In 1895 the property had changed owners, and the 
house was burned to the ground. Still another built there is 
now occupied by an estimable Swedish family. Wall by name. 

Years ago, a young lady who lived at this Lardner Deming 
place was ill a long time. She declared that her head was 
turned half way around and no one could convince her to the 
contrary. Finally a new physician was called, who, when told 
of her trouble, said: ^'Anybody can see that, but I can set it 
right." He twisted her head about this way and that and then 
said *'Now it is straight," and she said it was. 



By permission, the following extracts are given from letters 
written by Mrs. Margaret Dunbar Stuart of Kew York City : 

It is a delight to nie after all these years to recall our neighbor 
Col. Galpin. 

Joseph Galpin was a colonel in the Revolutionary War and bore 
his erect military carriage at the age of eighty. He was a man of 
great personal dignity, of comfortable property and a large pension. 

Mrs. Seth Deming, his daughter, was a very beautiful woman 
even in extreme old age. Her daughter Cornelia was married to 



THE DEMIXG FAMILY 143 

my father's brother, Lyman Dunbar. I called upon her in Buffalo 
aft<?r she was eig'hty years old. 

Of the family, Mrs. Stuart writes that : 

They were the perfection of neat and perfect housekeeping. Col. 
Galpin's clock was always right. He had not a sim dial but he had 
noon marks, and four o'clock marks of the sim shadows by which he 
reg-ulated his timepiece. I was often sent there to get the exact time 
to set our own clock by. This was before the days of matches. I 
have known my mother toward tea-kettle time, siunmer afternoons, 
to send there for a live hickory coal to light our kitchen fire. 

Deacon Daniel Galpin was brother to Col. Joseph Galpin and lived 
next door to Parson Goodrich, my grandfather. He was of a more 
ardent temperament than Col. Galpin. He spoke in prayer meetings, 
and was a warm abolitionist. 

In a wing of his hoTise was a shop where he whittled logs into 
pumps. Also his daughter Mary utilized this shop for her dame 
school. 

One day there was a sudden noise and my brother, a little boy 
saying his letters, was greatly pleased to find the Deacon had fallen 
over his pump log. 

At one time Deacon Galpin put up a sign on his pump shop, 
"Anti-Slavery Books for sale here." 

This subjected him to some persecution and it was torn dowm by 
the roughs of the village. 

Colonel Joseph Galpin died December 26, 1840, aged 
eighty-six. Deacon Daniel Galpin died July 9, 1844, aged 
eighty-eight. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

The Dunbar Family. 

(Article found among Miss North's papers, written by 
Inglis Stuart.) 

The Dimbar family, of Berlin (or of Worthington as it was 
first designated), traces its descent as follows: — 

Robert Dunbar,^ bom 1630, settled at Hingham, Mass., 
1657, and died there October 5, 1693. 

John Dimbar,- born Hingham, Mass., December 1, 1657, 
date of death not ascertained — presumably ISTew Haven, Conn. 

John Dunbar,^ born 1690, died Wallingford, Conn., May 
13, 1746. 

John Dunbar,'* born Wallingford, Conn., September 28, 
1724, died there October 24, 1786. 

Aaron Dunbar,^ born Walling-ford, Conn., January 13, 1748, 
died Plymouth, Conn., date not ascertained. 

Daniel Dunbar,*^ born Plymouth, Conn., March 28, 1774. 

Daniel Dunbar came to Worthington about 1800 and died 
there (when it bore the present name Berlin) December 28, 
1841. He is the one identified with the early history of Berlin, 
where all his children were born. 

Edward Ely Dunbar,'^ eldest son of Daniel Dunbar.^ 

Frederick Dunbar,'^ second son. 

Daniel Dunbar, Jr.,'^ third son. 

Margaret Elizabeth Dunbar,"^ daughter of Daniel Dunbar.^ 

Edward Mauran Dunbar,^ son of Edward Ely Dunbar.''' 

Edward McVey Dunbar,^ son of Edward Mauran Dunbar.^ 

Margaret Elizabeth Dunbar married Homer H. Stuart ; chil- 
dren : — 

Katharine Dunbar Stuart,^ married John Godfrey Duns- 
comb; 

Homer Hine Stuart, Jr.,^ married Margaret Beckwith 
Kenny ; 



THE DUNBAR FAMILY 145 

Iiig-lis Stuart.^ 

Katharine S. Dunscomb's children, viz, : — Margaret S. Duns- 
comb,^ Cecil Dunscomb," John Carol Dunscomb," and Godfroi 
Dimscomb.^ 

Homer Iline Stuart, Jr.,^ has one child, viz. : — Homer How- 
land Stuart.^ 

The foregoing is the descent as it stands July 20, 1910. 

Referring now to the individuals alluded to in the foregoing 
chain : — 

"While the name indicates Lowland Scotch extraction, it is 
not, so far as I am aware, known where Robert^ was bom. His 
wife's name was Rose (surname not known). She came with 
Robert^ and died October 5, 1693, at Hingham, Mass. Eew 
details of them have survived. They appear to have been 
substantial, respectable individuals in the Hingham Settlement. 

John Dunbar^ has left few traces. I think Mrs. E. McCurdy 
Salisbury, in her Lyme, Conn., Memorials, traces his descend- 
ants in her monograph of the Diodati family. John Dunbar^ 
married Mattithiah Aldridge of Boston, Mass. She was the 
daughter of George (and Catharine) Aldridge (see History of 
Mendon, Mass.) and was born July 10, 1656, married July 
4, 1679, and died 1699 (at New Haven ?). The date and place 
of the death of John Dunbar^ has not been ascertained with 
certainty, but is presumed to have been at ISTew Haven, Conn., 
and to have occurred before the decease of Mattithiah. 

John Dunbar^ has left scarcely more than his name. He 
married Elizabeth Fenn (born April 29, 1692, daughter of 
Edward Fenn and Mary Thorp) June 14, 1716 (see Town Rec- 
ords of Wallingford, Conn., Vol. 2, page 783). John Dunbar^ 
died May 13, 1746. His wife died November 2, 1751. 

John Dunbar"* (references to him will be found in History 
of Plymouth, Conn., by Senator Atwater, who is one of his 
descendants) was a soldier of the Revolutionary War, and, 
with the exception of his son Moses, all of his sons served with 
him in the same regiment. He married Temperance Hall 
(born April 16, 1727, daughter of Jonathan Hall and Dinah 
Andrews), N'ovember 8, 1743 (see Town Records Wallingford, 

10 



146 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

Comi., Vol. 1, page 546), and died October 24, 1Y86. His 
wife died in May, 1770. 

Aaron Dunbar^ is also referred to in the Atwater History. 
The date of his death is not at hand, but as he lived in Ply- 
mouth, Conn., it presumably can be obtained from there. He 
was a man of very fine appearance in his later years, despite 
the fact that he was totally blind. He married Mary Potter 
March 26, 1773. She died July 18, 1827. 

Daniel Dunbar graduated in the Class of 1794, Yale, and 
was a Phi Beta Kappa man. For a time he was an instructor 
in Williams College, Williamstown, Mass. He then went to 
Litchfield, Conn., and studied law. While at Litchfield he 
roomed at the same house with Frederick Wolcott and Samuel 
Whittelsey, and it is a notable fact that the three comrades 
married three sisters. Frederick Wolcott married Sarah 
Worthington Goodrich, Samuel Whittelsey married Abigail 
Goodrich, while Daniel Dunbar married Katharine Chauncey 
Goodrich. These were three of the daughters of Rev. Samuel 
Goodrich and Elizabeth Ely. Daniel Dunbar*^ married Kath- 
arine Chauncey Goodrich at Berlin, September 12, 1817. She 
was bom at Ridgefield, Conn., December 4, 1791, and died at 
Berlin, Conn., October 15, 1873. (See Goodrich Family, also 
Chauncey Memorials. ) 

Daniel Dunbar was usually called Squire Dunbar. He built 
and lived in a house nearly opposite the Congregational church. 
He had a good practice as a lawyer and was greatly beloved. 
He represented the town in the legislature, but was averse to 
public office. He was especially painstaking in looking after 
the affairs of the poor and unfortunate, and it was with diffi- 
culty that he could be induced to send in his bills. He settled 
the estate of Captain Newell, and the heirs were so pleased with 
his mangement that they presented him, as a token of esteem, 
with a pair of tall silver candlesticks and a beautiful silver 
tray containing an inkwell and a sander for blotting. He was 
a portly, ruddy-faced man, with blue eyes and white hair, and 
full of fun and geniality. He suffered a stroke of paralysis 
some months before his death, which left him helpless, but it 



THE DUXBAB FAMILY 



147 



was a curious fact that during this period of incapacity he 
used to read his Hebrew Bible without difficulty. The shock 
was brought on by family misfortune. His son Edward, who 
had engaged in business in Boston, was involved, while abroad, 
by the poor judgment of a partner, and Daniel Dunbar insisted 
on coming to the rescue although not in any wise liable. This 
took a gi*eat part of his property, but it enabled Edward to 
meet the firm obligations. Then the sudden death of his son 
Daniel was a great grief. Both these misfortunes took place 
close together. 

Edward Ely Dunbar was named after an uncle on the 
maternal side, who lived at Goshen, ]!T. Y, In early life 
Edward went to Boston and entered the establishment of Abbott 
Lawrence. His business qualifications soon were apparent and 
he was sent to England to buy goods. On his return he formed 
a partnership, — Dunbar & Motley, — and the firm's prospects 
were good, but, as stated, his partner did not use sound judg- 
ment and Edward returned from another voyage to find the 
firm badly involved. After this he went to jSTew York and 
became a partner of Lewis and Arthur Tappan. Here he 
recouped himself, but had a disagreement with his partners 
and about 1845 withdrew. After the close of the Mexican War 
he traveled in Mexico and returned from there in 1848. In 
I^ovember of that year, he started for California and crossed 
the Isthmus of Panama, arriving at San Francisco in January, 
1849. He amassed a fortune there in a short time. He opened 
the first mint and the gold coins of Dunbar k Company were 
widely known and to-day bring enormous prices at coin sales. 
He came east about 1852, and, after a brief season of leisure, 
organized with Col. Sam Colt of Hartford, Conn., a corpora- 
tion entitled ''The Sonora Exploration Co." He undertook the 
leadership of the expedition and led it through what is now 
Southern Arizona and the State of Sonora in Mexico. There 
was great hardship and it laid the foundation of the disease 
from which he died — consumption. Once they were out of 
water and came near perishing. In a valley a tiny spring was 
discovered and he took his station with a teaspoon and doled 



148 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

out the water to each man in turn, not taking a drop himself 
until they had all had a supply. He was bitten by a rattlesnake 
and only the prompt drinking of a quantity of whiskey pulled 
him through. They discovered exceedingly rich silver ore 
ledges on the site of what many years later was known as 
Tombstone, but the hostility of the Apaches and the long route 
to the coast rendered it impracticable to work the mines. 
Returning to I^ew York he resided on a fine estate near Sailors' 
Snug Harbor, overlooking the Bay. In 1859 he married, at 
Providence, R. I., Mrs. Sophia Sterry Dunbar. She was the 
widow of Henry Dunbar of Baltimore. The relationship was 
remote. Mrs. Dunbar had two children: Henry Jr., who died 
at Panama in 1883, and Sophia, who married Henry D, Hill 
of Brooklyn, IST, Y. 

Edward Mauran Dunbar was born at Staten Island, I^. Y., 
in 1860. About the date the war broke out, Mr. Dunbar 
organized the Continental Bank ^ote Company. His health, 
however, was giving way and he was obliged to travel. In 
hope of finding benefit in the tropics, he went to South America, 
but the journey was too late and he died at Montevideo, 
February, 1870, and he was buried on the Isle of Flores. He 
was a man of wonderful executive ability, but his imperious 
temper, which could brook no contradiction, stood in the way of 
success. He pointed out the road to fortune which other and 
less gifted men followed to the goal. He wrote "Eldorado," 
an account of Sutter's discovery of gold in California, and 
was president of the Traveler's Club of ISTew York. 

Frederick Dunbar went early to ]^ew York and with James 
M. Brown and Frederick Seaver formed the firm of Brown, 
Seaver & Dunbar, which lasted several years. Mr. Brown 
withdrew to enter the banking firm of Brown Bros. & Co., 
which exists to-day. Mr. Dunbar then went to California where 
he arrived October, 1849. He was very successful and was 
rated as a very wealthy man, and had made all his preparations 
to return when a disastrous fire occurred and all his capital 
was swept away. The blow was so stunning that his reason 
was upset and he was unable to engage thereafter in business. 
He died, never having married, in July, 1892. 



THE DUX BAR FAMILY 



149 



Daniel Dunbar, Jr., was a youth of fine promise, a diligent 
and attentive scholar, and a very neat letter writer. He was 
not very strong, and in the fall of 1838 he was sent to St. Mary's 
River, Fla., where his cousin, Asaph Dunbar, was operating a 
saw mill. He stayed until spring. He died of appendicitis 
on May 28, 1839. Here is an anecdote. That forenoon his 
little sister was left in the room with him for a few moments. 
The sunlight, falling through the leafage of the crabapplc tree, 
flecked the counterpane with light and shade as the breeze 
gently stirred the boughs. Daniel's eyes rested on the rippling 
shadows. He knew that he was dying and he said, "This is 
a beautiful world. In a few moments I shall have fathomed 
the deep mystery." Just then others entered and the little 
sister crept away. Daniel died that afternoon. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Church History of Berlin. — Early History of the "Xew 
Ecclesiastical Society." — The Divisions of the Society. — • 
History of Christian Lane Cemetery. — The Bev. Williani 
Burnham and his Family. — History of South Cemetery. — 
Incidents in the History of the Worthington Church. — Deacon 
Amos Hosford. 

The story of the first settlement in Christian Lane in IGSG, 
on land bequeathed to Ebenezer Gilbert, and of the Seymour 
Stoekade, built of stakes, set sixteen feet high, with a fort 
within, and cabins for the settlers, who gathered tliere at night 
for mutual protection from the dreaded Indians, is familiar to 
us all, and we have been told that in 1705 permission was 
granted the fourteen families of Great Swamp village to have 
a minister and a meeting house of their own. 

The new Ecclesiastical Society, which comprised parts of 
Earmington, Wethersfield, and Middletown, was formed in 
1705, but seven years passed before the meeting house was 
ready. December 10, 1712, a church of ten members was 
organized, and on the same day the Rev. William Burnham 
was ordained and settled as its minister. Mr. Burnham was 
then twenty-eight years of age. He was the son of William 
Burnham of Wethersfield, was graduated from Harvard in 
1702, and had already preached for the new society three years. 

The ''7 pillars" of the church were: Mr. Burnham, Stephen 
Lee, Thomas Hart, Anthony Judd, Samuel Seymour, Thomas 
JSTorth, and Caleb Cowles. These, with the wives of Stephen 
Lee, Thomas Hart, and Samuel Seymour, were the original ten 
members of the Christian Lane church. 

Anthony Judd was the first deacon, confirmed and ordained 
by a solemn service, after a two-years' term of probation. 

Soon after the church was formed, it was agreed "that the 
members should hold conference meetino-s on the first davs of 



CHUKCH HISTORY OF BERLIN 151 

every Month in the year, to begin about 2 hours before sun- 
set at the Meeting house, and sd meeting shall begin with prayer 
by one of the Brethren, who shall propose a Text of Scripture, 
and a question or questions, on the same, in writing, then to 
be discoursed on, by his next brother, by House row, by word 
or by writing, if sd Brother shall see cause. And the Pastor 
of the Church, and the sd brother from whom an answer is 
expected at any Meeting, shall at the same meeting lay down 
the Text of Scripture, and the question or the questions thereon 
arising to be discoursed on at the next meeting, to his next 
neighbor successively, till every brother in the Church has taken 
his turn, then he shall begin again who first proposed the ques- 
tion, and so on successively." 

It was also agreed that "none should be present at sd. con- 
ference, but those in full communion, but by liberty from the 
church." 

It was taken for granted that the women, if present at those 
conference meetings, "kept silence." 

Two years later, January 11, 1714, the society voted "To 
build a pulpit and seats in number and form as followeth, to 
say, two pues on each side of the pulpit, and three long seats on 
each side of the brode alley to be left from the pulpit to the 
east door of said meeting house, leaving convenient allies 
toward ye north and south dores." "The said pulpit and pues 
to be built batten fashen." 

The work was not completed until 1716, when the "decent 
and fashionable cushing" was ordered for the new desk. 

This little church, with four short pews and six long seats, 
soon proved inadequate for the growing congregation, and, in 
1720, a contract was made with Richard Austin and Moses 
Bull, of Hartford, to put in galleries: They to receive in 
payment, "£31 in Bills of credit .... or else in good 
Mercha[ndise], Wheat, rye, or Indian Corn, at the price the 
Merchants generally in Hartford or Wethersfield will accept 
the said sorts of grain in way of payment of debt due to them." 
The contractors agreed to "put and trim decently 4 pillars to 
be set under the beams of said galleries .... the said 
committee providing suitable pieces of timber hewed square." 



152 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

The galleries, with four seats in each side gallery and eight 
seats in the front gallery, were to be ''finished workmanlike — 
after the manner of the work in the Galleries in Farmington 
Meeting-house." 

The heartburnings caused when the meeting house was seated 
according to "age, list, and whatever makes a man honorable," 
have not been recorded. At the annual meeting: "7 Dec. 
1724, it was voted & agreed that Thos Hart & Saml Bronson, 
jun. should oversee ye Youth on ye Sabbaths in the time of 
exercise, to Restrain them from unreverent behaviors therein, 
for the year ensuing." ISTot long after the new galleries were 
completed the house was again found too small. Families who 
had come into the Society and settled miles away from Chris- 
tian Lane also complained that they were "under great dif- 
ficulty to attend the public worship of God by reason of the 
length and badness of travel especially at some seasons of the 
year." 

A vote of the Society was taken January 26, 1729, to build 
a new meeting house over on Seagt. John l^orton's lot. The 
vote stood forty-two in the affirmative and thirty-six in the 
negative. This new location was near the Milo Hotchkiss place, 
more than a mile southwest from the old house. The troubles 
that followed have been told by the Kev. W. W. Woodworth in 
these words : 

The seeds of forty years of strife were in that vote. Serious diffi- 
culties arose respecting the location. Recourse was had in the most 
solemn manner to the lot to decide the question. An advisory coun- 
cil was called to decide what the lot did not settle. The council 
advised that the site indicated by the lot was the place pointed out 
by Providence to build the meeting house upon ; but the people would 
not build it there. The General Assembly of the colony was next 
appealed to. In May, 1732, that body appointed a committee to 
repair to the parish, view the circumstances, and fix the place for 
building the meeting-house. 

The committee fulfilled their trust and "pitched down a 
stake in Deacon Thomas Hart's home lot." The society would 
take no measures for building there, and in October, 1732, the 
General court "ordered, directed, and empowered the constable 



CHURCH HISTORY OF BERLIN 153 

of the town of Farmin^ton to assess and gather of the inhabi- 
tants of Kensington ninepence on the pound of the polls and 
ratable estate on said society, and deliver it to the treasurer 
of the colony ; who was ordered, on receipt thereof ; to pay out 
the same to Captain John Marsh, Capt, Thomas Seymour, and 
Mr. John Church, all of Hartford, who were appointed and 
empowered to be a committee, or any two of them, to erect 
and finish a meeting-house, at the place aforesaid, for the society 
aforesaid." Kensington Society at that time comprised nearly 
all of the present town of Berlin, and a part of New Britain. 

This Hartford committee "speedily and effectually" did 
their work. They erected a house, '^60 feet in length and 45 
in breadth, containing in the whole about 1500 persons." This 
house, built "about one rod south of an apple tree, partly dead," 
in Deacon Hart's home lot, was on the north side of the high- 
way leading from the Town house to the railroad station, not 
far from the corner, west of the dwelling house of the late 
Cyrus Koot. 

Oak timbers from the first church building were used in a 
cow-house on the Gilbert place. 

The Berlin chapter, D. A. R., secured one of these timbers, 
which thc,y have had made into picture frames. The more 
worm-eaten holes, the choicer the frame. 



The first division of the ancient Society of Kensington came 
in 1754, when, at the May session of the General Assembly, it 
was enacted "that there be another Ecclesiastical Society 
Erected & Made .... within ye bounds of Farmington .... 
& shall be "known by the name of New Briton." 

The question of this division had been agitated since 1739, 
when the inhabitants of the north part of the parish petitioned 
"for liberty of four months to meet at some convenient place 
for the ease of our travel to attend the public worship of God." 

When the New Britain church was fonncd, April 10, 1758, 
fifty of its sixty-eight members were received from the Kensing- 



154 HISTORY OF BEKLIX 

ton church. One hundred and seventy-four remained with the 
mother church. 

That meeting house, built so "speedily" by the Hartford 
committee, seems not to have been appreciated. According to 
the Colonial records, Thomas Hart and others, inhabitants of 
the Society of Kensington, sent a memorial to the General 
Assembly of 1764, 

Eepresenting that the meeting house in said Society for many 
years last past has been decaying and for want of proper & season- 
able repairs is becoming very indecent and not fit and comfortable for 
the piupose of public worship, and that the different sentiments of 
the inhabitants of sd Society are such that they cannot by vote agree 
to repair sd house or build another. 

A committee was sent by the assembly to "view the circum- 
stances," but the people could not agree, except to make the 
house comfortable for another year. A vote had previously 
been taken "to shingle the fore ruff" and to repair the windows. 

Three years later, in 1767, Selah Hart and others of the 
society of Kensington sent a second memorial to the assembly, 

Representing that the meeting house is become ruinous, unsafe, 
indecent & uncomfortable to meet in for public worship, and that a 
place in sd society for building a new meeting house hath been 
ascertained and that no vote or agreement of sd society can be 
obtained either for repairing sd old meeting bouse or for building a 
new one at sd place, whereby the attendance of the inliabitants of sd 
society on public worship is rendered uncomfortable, and will probably 
be impeded without the interposition of the assembly. 

The feeling in regard to the meeting house may be inferred 
from an action taken by the society January 11, 1770, when it 
was voted. 

That Messrs. Elisha Savage, Amos Peck, Elias Beckley, Capt. 
David Sage, Ezekiall Kelsey and others, twelve in all, be a committee 
to oppose any persons that may .... pull down, destroy, or 
carry away, any part or appendage belonging to our meeting 
house .... Any boards, shingles, glass, window-frames or other 
thing- or matter whatsoever .... without due order of the 
society .... to prosecute to final judgment any such person or 



CHURCH HISTORY OF BERLi:S" 155 

persons that hath, may or shall hereafter pull down, destroy, break, 
or carry away any part of said meeting house .... 

This was carried by a majority of twenty out of one hundred 
and sixty-one votes cast. 

All along there had been an undercurrent of feeling that 
another division was inevitable. This feeling came to a head 
when, in June, 1771, one hundred and thirty-seven men signed 
a paper, by which they agreed to submit the whole matter to 
arbitration. Colonel John Worthington of Springfield, Colonel 
Oliver Partridge of Hartford, and Mr. Eldad Taylor of West- 
field, in the Province of Massachusetts, who were appointed 
to the task, came, studied the situation, accepted it, drew the 
dividing line, and set stakes for two new meeting houses. On 
May G, 1772, as appears by the Colonial record, the society, 
by their agent, sent a memorial to the assembly. 

Showing to this Assembly that it is best and absolutely necessary 
for the mutual peace & real happiness as well as from the limits, 
situation, extent & wealth and other respects that sd society should 
be divided into 2 distinct ecclesiastical societies by a north & south 
line, which they have a long time laboured to effect; and sd south 
soc'y having now mutually agreed that the most reasonable line of 
division will be in the following manner and form ; to wit : 

Beginning at tlie South line of the sd Soc'y at the place where 
the river eld Belcher's river crosses the sd line, thence extending 
northerly by sd river until it comes to the 4-rod hiway until it comes 
to the south side of Selah Hart Esq'r land, thence east on the line 
of sd Hart's land to the same river again, thence northerly a direct 
course (leaving sd Hart's now land on the west if any of it should 
happen to fall east of sd course) to a point on the highway 10 feet 
east of Deacon Ebenezer Harts dwelling house from thence north 
to the north line of sd society, to include however the whole of sd 
Deacon Hart's farm on which he now dwells in sd west society. 

The West Society kept the name, the minister, the churcli 
records and the communion servace; the East Society in 
gratitude to Colonel Worthington for his wise coimsel, adopted 
his name. 

This division line, as it comes in from the south, crosses the 
road half-way between John Norton's house and his millpond; 



156 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

thence it follows north on a road, now seldom traveled, until 
it comes to the General Selah Hart farm, now owned by heirs 
of the late Mrs. Jacob C. Bauer. 

To divide farms would make confusion in paying church 
taxes; Mr. Hart had particularly requested that all his land 
might be in Kensington, and so here the line turns directly east 
until it comes nearly over to Lower Lane. 

At the point where Blue Hills brook and Belcher brook unite, 
the line turns again and goes directly north to a large stone, 
set as a mark, about half a mile northwest of the old Seymour 
fort, where it meets the ISTew Britain south line. This New 
Britain line was extended, in 1754, from Shuttle Meadow Lake, 
east until it crossed Christian Lane, about one-eighth of a mile 
north of the Fort, and was terminated a short distance east of 
Christian Lane. The division line between the two societies 
runs near Mott's corner, ten feet east of Mott's east door. 

The hall now owned by the Agricultural Society stands in 
Worthington; the cattle sheds are in Kensington, the line is 
about half way between the hall and sheds. 

The early settlers around the fort at Christian Lane carried 
their dead back to Farmington or to Hartford, but Captain 
Seymour, according to tradition, had given a plot of ground 
for a burying yard and was himself the first to be laid there. 
Whatever his intentions were, it is evident that the society had 
not received a title to the land. The actual deed was given 
November 1, 1718, by the Eev. William Burnham, who, 

for the regard he had for the public welfare of the parish at 
Great Swamp in the southeast part of Farmington & in considera- 
tion of the society releasing him from 20s, he promised to encourage 
the building the Meeting house, he gave, sold, conveyed & set over 
to Thos. Hart & Thos. North a committee of said society a piece of 
land containing by estimation half an Acre, moreor less, in length 
10 rods & in breadth 8 rods. 

It is part of the same lot that originally was James Bird's, and 
which I purchased of Sam'l Semer, and it is understood that it is 
for the use of said Society, for a possession, for a Burying ground 
forever — said society is to maintain a good fence at their own cost, 
and I am not to be taxed for any part of the expense of a division 
fence as the law in other cases provides, and further until such divi- 



CHURCH HISTORY OF BERLIN 157 

sion fence is made, the said society are not to feed the ground or any 
way use it except to bury their dead. Said land is situate on a knowl 
of up land lying a little to the North of a stream called "Gilbird's 
River," and abutteth east on the highway that passeth North from 
the Meeting House and butts North on land of Nath'l Not, West & 
South on my own land. 

Signed Wm. Burnham. 
Stephen Lee 



Ebenezer Gilbert j 

This cemetery, the oldest in Berlin or Xew Britain, is situated 
on the west side of the road, about one-half mile south of the 
Seymour place, the distance divided by the brick Gilbert house. 
Most of the stones placed at the graves in this yard previous to 
1730, if stones there were, have disappeared; one hundred and 
thirty-eight remain (including those of more recent date), the 
oldest dated 172 G. The inscriptions show that twenty-four 
persons who lived on this street, or near it, lived to an average 
age of over eighty-four. In the decade including 1741-1751, 
forty burials are recorded on stones ; of these, an unusual num- 
ber of young persons, in 1741-2-3, would indicate some fatal 
epidemic at that time. Those who have recorded these inscrip- 
tions have found the lettering on the footstones often more 
legible than that on the headstones, and in doubtful cases the 
matter was cleared by turning to the footstone. The headstones 
nearly all face the rising sun, and it is possible that the eastern 
storms have worn awa}^ the marks of the chisel. 

In 1737 it was "voted and agreed that Elisha Goodrich may 
take within his own enclosure the burying yard of this society, 
for five years, provided the said Elisha Goodrich clear and 
keep the said yard from brush and keep swine from rooting the 
same." 

Xow, what about that "good fence?" 

Mr. Alfred Andrews in 1867 made the following statement: 

This time honored cemetery .... had been sadly neglected 
for many years previous to 1845, when by the enterprise and liberality 
of Mr. John Ellis, some few subscriptions were obtained from indi- 
viduals, and an appropriation of $30, from the parish of Worthington, 
in which it is located, and a neat white fence, erected on sunk stones, 



158 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

with iron braces, at a cost of $160, an undue proportion of which 
expense was paid by himself. 

John Ellis was the father of Martin Ellis. He lived in the 
large old-fashioned house next east of the "Martin Ellis cor- 
ner," so called. The foundation stones of his work done on the 
cemetery fence sixty years ago remain, but the broken slats lying 
flat on the ground remind one of the old adage that "what is 
everybody's business is nobody's," 

On the east side of the road, at the top of the hill south 
of the railroad, and about a quarter of a mile south of the 
cemetery, may be seen a stone, recently placed there by the 
Euth Hart chapter, D. A. R,, of Meriden, to mark the site of 
Berlin's first meeting house. The land on which it stood was 
leased from Dr. Joseph Steele, and "peter blin," of Wethers- 
field, was the carpenter. The building was occupied in 1712, 
without pulpit, "pues" or galleries, but with a debt of £60 
to Peter Blinn. 



The Eev. William Burnham, born July 17, 1684, was a son 
of William and Elizabeth [Loomis] Burnham of Wethersfield. 
His grandfather, born 1617, of Hertfordshire, England, who 
came to Hartford about 1647, was a lawyer of good education 
and ability. Shortly before his death, in 1688, he made a 
will, by which he gave his house and home lot to his unmarried 
daughter, Rebecca. His wife, Ann, was made executrix and 
the will was given to her to keep. 

Two years later Rebecca was married to William Mann, who 
complained that the will had not been exhibited in court, and 
that he, the said Mann, was like to be dispossessed of what his 
father gave his wife. 

The marshal served the complaint on Ann and summoned her 
to appear in court with the will. This account is given for the 
sake of the following quaint reply sent by Mrs. Burnham : 

24 June 1690. 

Honred Sor, Mr. Ayllin: Thes fPew Lines are to Lett you under- 
stand my Ssorrowffull condishon. I have bene weke and Lame a 



CHURCH HISTORY OF BERLIN 



159 



long time, and Now did begin to be som what beter be ffor my son 
Will man did make so much trobell by ye authority in Sending up 
ye Marshall, and by Souerving Wamts on all my Children, by which 
mens greved me very much, as I have declared to ye marshall when 
he was at my house. 

Thear ffor my earnest desir is that you would Not Let any thing 
goe fforward in a way off Setling my estate whillst I can Spak with 
you my Sellffe, and then I hop I shall do it to all my Childrens' 
Satisffassion. 

Ye writin which my son Will man took, I know not what was in 
it, for I never heard it read. My son Will man asked me to see ye 
writing. I told him he mit. So when he had it he took it and put it 
in his poeit with out my Leveffe. 

off an X Bumham. 

William Burnham, Jr., married May 18, 1704, at the age 
of twenty, Hannah, daughter of Capt. Samuel Wolcott and 
Judith [ Appleton] , his wife, of Wethersfield. They were living 
in Great Swamp in 1709. 

On consideration that Mr. Burnham should remain with the 
church as its minister nine years, the Town of Farmington 
voted, December 23, 1707, to give him fifty acres of land in 
three parcels "to be taken up in our sequestered lands not 
prejudicing highways or former grants." 

The grant was laid out to him "in ye Great Swamp upon the 
plains beyond ye boggy meadow Southward & lyeth in length 
8 score rods. Butting east on ye highway IGO rods; West on 
common land, iSTorth & South on common land 50 rods." 

In regard to common lands, as the unappropriated land was 
called, settlers gave the town so much trouble by putting out 
fences to take in more than belonged to them that encroaching 
committees were appointed. At the town meeting held January 
2, 1793, it was voted that "the committee for the Parish of 
Worthington enquire into the encroachments on Christian Lane 
and remove' the same." 

One of the conditions of Mr. Burnham's settlement, as drawn 
by his own hand, was that "the house begun by 2d Society be 
finished in the manner and to the degree that is ordinary in 
this country for such sort of houses, that is to say the two Loer 



160 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

rooms, at or before the last day of March that shall be in the 
year 1710, the remainder within twelve months after, I only 
finding glass and nails." 

Further reference will be made to this house, which stood on 
the site of the ISTorman Porter place. 

Mr. Burnham was a faithful pastor and a sound preacher. 
On election day, May 10, 1722, he preached before the General 
Assembly at Hartford. His sermon, entitled "God's Prudence 
in placing men in their Respective Stations & Conditions 
asserted and shewd," was published ''by order of Authority," 
1722. 

Mr. Burnham served the church until his death, September 
23, 1750, in the thirty-eighth year of his ministry. His wife, 
Hannah, died March 16, 1747, and he married second. Widow 
Buckingham, who died soon after their marriage. 

By his will, drawn July 15, 1748, witnessed by John Root, 
John Root, Jr., and Eunice Root, Mr. Burnham divided his real 
estate equally between his three sons. He mentions his Spanish- 
Indian woman Maria, and provides that she shall have a com- 
fortable support during life, in sickness and in health, at the 
expense of all his children. 

"Concerning my Mulatto Boy James," he says, "my will 
is that according to my wife's desire my daughter Abigail may 
have liberty to take him at the price he shall be valued at." 

Of the nine children born to the Rev. William Burnham and 
his wife Hannah, Captain William, born April 5, 1705, mar- 
ried Ruth, daughter of the "rich Isaac ISTorton," sister of 
Tabatha, the "Stolen Bride." Their home was next west of 
his father's, which must have been the Cyrus Root place. It 
is supposed that he built that house. When he died, at the age 
of forty-one, his estate inventoried £8,426 10s. lid., a large 
amount for his times. 

In his will he mentions besides his wife, his only son, Elisha 
(aged nineteen years), and two daughters, Sarah (aged fifteen 
years) and Ruth, "the youngest." 

Hannah, eldest daughter of Rev. William Burnham, born 
November 18, 1708, became the wife of Rev. Jeremiah Curtiss 
of Southington. 



CHURCH HISTORY OF BERLIN 161 

Abigail, born September 14, 1713, was the wife of Lieut. 
Robert Wells of Newington. 

Josiah, born September 28, 1716, married another Ruth 
N'orton, daughter of John iN'orton and Ann Thompson, his wife. 

Mary, born September 7, 1721, was married to John Judd 
of i^ew Britain. She was said to be very beautiful and highly 
accomplished. 

Appleton, born April 28, 1724, married Mary Wolcott of 
Litchfield. 

Lucy was married to Jacob Root of Hebron. 

Some years since, George Dudley SejTnour of N'ew Haven, 
a patent office lawyer, a descendant of Abigail Burnham Wells, 
came to Berlin to visit and photograph the ancestral home and 
the graves in the old cemetery. The Burnham inscriptions there 
read as follows : 

Sarah daughter of Rev. Wm. Burnham, died Nov. 23rd, 1726, 
aged 8 years. 

Capt. Wm. Burnham, d. Mch 12, 1748-9,* aged 44 years. 

Mrs. Hannah Burnham, wife of Rev. Wm. Burnham, died Mch 
17, 1747-8,* aged 64. 

Mrs. Ruth Burnham, wife of Mr. Josiah Bumliam, d. June 28, 
1762, aged 39. 

Here lies interred the body of the Rev. William Burnham, Senior, 
first pastor of the Church of Christ in Kensington, who having 
served his generation according to the will of God, fell on sleep 
September the 23d, 1750, in the sixty-sixth year of his age and the 
thirty-eighth of his ministry. 

Mrs Ruth Burnham, relict of Capt. Wm. Burnham, d. June 28, 
1786, aged 76. 



The Brandegee family had originally a private burying 
ground in their home yard. Jacob Brandegee of ISTew York, a 
brother of Dr. Brandegee's father, did not like to see the graves 
so near the house, therefore he bought a piece of land east of 
the old south burying ground and east of the strip owned by 
Mrs. Zenas Richardson, and had the bodies removed to that 
place. 

• Note the curious inscription. The last figure seems to be the correct 
one. Capt. Burnham, for instance, was born in 1705. 

11 



162 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

In 1841 he deeded that tract of land to the Worthington 
Ecclesiastical Society, reserving forever a certain part for his 
own relatives. 

In 1853 Colonel Bulkeley, Philip ISTorton, and Henry Sage, 
a committee appointed for the purpose, purchased of Mrs. 
Richardson, for thirty dollars, that intermediate strip owned 
by her. Thus the old and new parts were joined and a con- 
tinuous cemetery was made. 

The oldest inscription discovered in the west part, first used, 
is that of Isaac Peck, who died October 2, 1748, aged forty-two 
years. In May, 1888, the grounds were extended on the south 
side by purchase from Walter S. Hart. On April 3, 1903, the 
cemetery formerly known as the South Cemetery was legally 
incorporated under the name of The Maple Cemetery (Inc.), 
Berlin, Conn., and the Worthington Ecclesiastical Society 
deeded to said association all its rights in the grounds. The 
amount of its capital stock is five thousand dollars, divided into 
two hundred shares of the par value of twenty-five dollars each. 
One share entitles the holder to one vote and to one lot. It 
was the intention at first to sell the shares at ten dollars each, 
but when the committee went before the court, they were told 
that they could not be incorporated unless they charged twenty- 
five dollars per share. Bryan H. Atwater is secretary and 
treasurer of the association. 

There was a Zalmuna Atwood, whose wife, Sarah Mygatt, 
joined the Worthington Congregational Church in 1828. She 
died in 1835, aged sixty-four. Zalmuna died in 1836, aged 
sixty-four. 

When Walter S. Hart built his house next south of the Maple 
Cemetery he tore down another old colonial house that stood 
close to the street, where the well in front of the Hart house 
may be seen. 

Mrs. Harriet Hart Dickinson remembers that an Atwood 
family lived in that house. There were several children, and 
it is probable that Zalmuna was the name of their father. The 
children were capable and bright. Jamison, who was a car- 
penter, built the Universalist Church. ISTelson, the grandfather 



CHURCH HISTORY OF BERLIN 



163 



of Clarence Atwood, who was also a house builder, moved to 
'New Haven about 1848. Millicent was the wife of Samuel 
Pattison and Sarah was the wife of Isaac Dobson. 

In the forties the house was occupied by Jefferson Steele 
and his family. 



Sally Atwood united with the Worthington Congregational 
Church early in life. The reason that her name does not appear 
in the catalogue of members is shown by the following account 
taken from an old record book : 

In March, 1822, when she was nineteen years old, she asked 
for a letter of dismission and recommendation to the "Methodist 
Episcopal church of this place." 

The reasons she set forth, six in number, for this step, cov- 
ered a closely written page of foolscap paper, which was read 
in church. She said she could not believe with this church in 
the doctrine of foreordination of eternal election or reprobation. 

Reason 3d reads : 

I cannot believe with this church that it is possible for men once 
regenerated and born again to backslide so as to fail of the grace 
of God. 

In number six she says : 

When these doctrines are preached, that preaching darkens my 
mind instead of giving me light, and I am constrained to believe it 
my duty to walk in the light instead of walking where that darkness 
of mysteriousness is thrown over my mind 

(Signed) S Atwood 

Deacon Daniel Galpin and John Goodrich were appointed 
a committee "to confer with said Sally Atwood and endeavor 
to enlighten her mind and convince her of her error." 

The next Sunday the committee reported that they had 
attended to the duty assigned them and had labored "to con- 
vince her that the views she entertained of the doctrines of the 
gospel were erroneous and unscriptural," and that "as she 



164 HISTOKY OF RKIU.IX 

was young she bad better study them more oarefully." but that 
'*she still pn.>t'esses to have the same views, and to l>e oous^'ieu- 
tious iu her Wief formed upon a eareful perusal of the bible 
and earnest prayer to God." 

Imagine a girl of nineteen in this age gv>iug through sueh 
an ordeal I 

Eecord states that "Sally Atwood joined the Methodist 
chureh the same Sabbath and is no longiu- a member ot the Jul 
chureh of AVorthington in Berlin" (^the "id Cougregatiomil 
church of Worthington at that time was called the r>d ohurelO. 

Sally's troubles were not at end when iu the told ot her 
chosen church. 

She was a stylish young woman and liked prottv eloihes. 
One Sunday she went to meeting with n now bonnet on her 
head and on the Kmnet a bow of ribbon. Woe the day ! Sally 
was disciplined for her audacity. 

This story reminds me of another: .V modest young lady 
came from East Berlin one Sunday to attend the Alethodist 
church. She had inside of her cottagv bonnet, each side of her 
face, a spray of delicate pink tlowers. The preacher fast^med 
his gaze upon her and spoke of the sin of "outward adorning" 
until he brought a color to her cheeks deeper than that of the 
flowers she wore. 

In a manuscript copy of the list of members of the Worthing- 
ton Congregational Church, dated ISl'J, is this curious entry: 

Edniond Boldoro and Utioa-anu his wife 

Mr. Boldero was admitei.1 to ixrtake ooeationly being under the 
disopline of this church but not to vote being a piscopalin 

In the same list of church members made in ISli! appears 
the name of John Tryon, with this note att-ached, "a piscopalin 
in principal but allowed to pertake occationly «S: to be under 
the watch of the church but not to vote.'' 

It is said that men are especially interested iu the religious 
experiences and the quarrels of their predecessors. A hint of 
both is given in a letter discovered by !Miss Buth Calpin, in an 
old record book. 



CHURCH HISTORY OF BERLIN 



165 



This letter, which relates to a neighbor of Mr. Johns, was laid 
before the pastor at a meeting of the Worthington church, held 
December 11, 1807. 

It reads as follows : 

Revd Sir 

Our obligations as Christians concerned for the honor of the 
Eedeemer and the good of souls constrains us to perform a very pain- 
ful service by preferring a heavy charge against a member of our 

church 

It appears from evidence altogether satisfactory that - 

has not only given himself up to the government of the most anti- 
christian passions but allowed himself without even the least provoca- 
tion to use language most dreadfully profane; he has dared impiously 
to utter the sacred name of the Divine being, calling on God to 
damn his fellow creatures, and particularly the pastor of the church 
of which we are members 

Such language uttered by a person accustomed to converse with 
people of decent manners, is truly shameful as well as criminal; 
uttered by a professor of the Gospel, it shocks the mind; but when 
we consider that the accused is an aged man, lan^age fails us when 
we would fully express the feelings of our hearts 

He seems to have descended to the lowest step in the climax of 
depravity, when a sense of duty and Christian love induced us to 
converse with him either personally or by delegation concerning his 
unworthy conduct, so far was he from confessing his sin that he gave 
the most unequivocal proof of being a slave to the most unchristian 

temper 

Aaron Porter 

Peat Galpin 

Amos Hosford 

Koger Riley ! Church's 

Jedediah Sage I Committee 

Daniel Galpin 

Selah Savage 

Samuel Porter 

The accused person having refusefl to appear in vindication of 
himself but caused a scandalous paper to be exhibited which consider- 
ably aggravated the first offense and the charge against him having 
been proved by two respectable and credible witnesses in its full 
extent, he was unanimously excommunicated as guilty of impiety 
profanity and breach of covenant. 



166 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

In 1830 charges brought by William Savage against another 
member from whom the church withdrew, were 

First: that he had never attended communion since the day he 
joined the church and that he seldom attended public worship with 
the church. 

Second: that he had violated the fovirth commandment It was 
stated on this count that "he had been in the habit of wandering in 
the fields on the Lord's day — cracking butternuts and gathering 
walnuts." 

Third : that he has been guilty of falsehood. 

S. Durand and Dr. Gridley were appointed to labor with 
the accused. This committee reported at an adjourned meeting 
that the member "acknowledged his guilt in all the charges," 
"but had nothing to ask of the church but only that they would 
cast him out." 

Under date of August, 1828, a record is found of a complaint 
by Deacon Daniel Galpin against l^ancy ISTorton, a member of 
the church, for "withdrawing from the watch and communion 
of the church in an irregular manner." 

"It appears that the said JSTancy ^Norton had joined herself 
to the communion of the Methodists and said in doing this she 
had acted from superior light which she had obtained as it 
respected the darkness of the gospel." 

A committee of the church labored with her, but in vain. 
They reported: "She has acted conscientiously on what she 
has done, and she will not be reclaimed." 



Over a hundred years ago Zadoc Sage lived on the east side 
of the road near Captain Sage's, and farther south, next beyond 
the brook, set well back on a hill, may still be seen the home of 
Deacon Amos Hosford, who died in 1822 in the eighty-fifth 
year of his age. 

At a meeting of the church in the parish of Worthington, 
held August 4, 1803, the following resolutions were adopted: 

Eesolved That Amos Hosford, one of the Deacons of the Church 
having presented the Church with a complete Set of plated vessels 



CHURCH HISTORY OF BERLIN 167 

for the administration of the Lord's Supper to become forever the 
exclusive property of the Communicants as a body and their suc- 
cessors they do accept and determine to use it for the sole purpose 
designed by the Donor 

Eesolved That the existing members of the church return their 
cordial thanks to their kind Benefactor for his very liberal and hand- 
some present, which they consider as an evidence both of his Christian 
love to them and his concern for the divine honour .... 

N. B. The just mentioned set of sacramental vessels consists of 
the following Articles, four flagons, three platters and six cups. 

N. B. The tablecloths for sacramental service were also given and 
the trunk containing the whole furniture. 

Moreover Amos Hosford said that it is his Will, the vessels may 
NEVER BE DHTDED thougli there should be a division of the Church and 
Society hereafter. 

'Test, Evan Johns. 

To give the foregoing Resolutions all the Authenticity and con- 
firmation of which they are capable so as that the property of the 
above named plated vessels may be fully and clearly vested in the 
undivided Body of communicants at Worthington and their suc- 
cessors forever, I hereto annex my name this fourth day of August 
one thousand eight hundred and three 

Amos Hosford. 



At a town meeting held May 4, 1798, it was voted "that 
Amos Hosford and Gad Stanley Esq. be appointed agents to 
oppose the road from Hartford to New Haven in the place 
or places where the same has been laid in Berlin, by a Com- 
mittee appointed by the Gen'l Assembly." 

Again, October 15, 1798, it was recorded that "Amos Hos- 
ford was appointed Agent, aforesaid, unless the expenses aris- 
ing on the same shall be defrayed by a company formed for 
that purpose, and such alterations shall be made in the places 
where the aforesaid road is laid as will better accommodate this 
town and the Public." 

Besides being a man of affairs. Deacon Hosford was very 
religious. It was said that he observed the fast days appointed 
by the governor, strictly as a time of fasting, meditation, and 
prayer. He would go to meeting and then shut himself in his 
room, and was seen no more for the remainder of the day. 



CHAPTER X. 

The Early Industries of Berlin.* — The Houses of Berlin Street 
and Their Occupants. 

When we study the early industries of Berlin, we find that 
it was distinctively a "Yankee" town, and on looking here for 
that "Yankee" ingenuity that made the six small states of 
"New England the nucleus of the developed prosperity of the 
whole country, we are astonished at the way in which the sons 
and daughters of every household adopted some trade or profes- 
sion, which they practiced under the family roof or in a small 
shop within the dooryard. In the earlier days all manufactured 
goods were brought in slow sailing vessels from across the sea, 
mostly from England, and sold at high prices. Our forefathers' 
wants were few yet their dollars fewer, and with unbounded 
energy and ability they soon set to work to make what they 
had neither the means nor the desire to buy. 'No drones were 
allowed. Laziness was a disgrace and a crime. Each member 
of the community turned his hand to some art of practical 

* A considerable portion of this chapter is based on a paper, read by 
Mr. Frank L. Wilcox at the Old Home Day celebration in the Second 
Congregational Church, Berlin, Sept. 20, 1905, and may be said to be a 
revision and enlargement of his paper. The work of Mr. Wilcox is most 
noticeable in the beginning — his specialty was the industries of Berlin — 
and a number of pages were written by him. The material presented in 
this chapter constituted the beginning of the historical articles on Berlin, 
as they appeared in the Berlin News, and it is desirable that it should 
all be reproduced here for the sake of greater completeness. With the 
permission of Mr. Wilcox, therefore, his own contribution is reprinted 
along with Miss North's. The reasons for not making this part the first 
chapter in the book have been stated in the foreword. The introductory 
paragraphs on the early industries of Berlin, written by Mr. Wilcox, may 
be given here: 

When a few years ago Miss Catharine M. North and I began a study of 
the good people who lived in the early homes of Berlin in Worthington 
Society, we were impressed with the fact that nearly every house had 
sheltered a master mechanic with his apprentices and journeymen, and 



THE EARLY INDUSTBIES OF BERLIN 169 

utility, first for domestic necessity or convenience, next for 
barter with his neiii:hbor ; then as money became more plenty 
to sell in his own and adjoining settlements. 

In the course of time certain manufacturers, of superior 
executive ability, increased their forces until they were able to 
undersell less fortunate makers. 

Journeymen could earn higher wages in a factory than at 
an independent bench and forsook their old masters. 

It was no longer profitable for each family and community 
to make what they could buy cheaply in the stores. 

The constantly increasing tendency was to concentrate trade 
in the larger towns, while leading men and skilled artisans 
banded themselves together in factory centers. 

Finally, on the principle that ''In union there is strength," 
by the inevitable "law of the survival of the fittest," and as 
the usual consequence of competition, ancient Berlin shared the 
fate of all small towns in ]^ew England. Her many and varied 
industries were slowly but surely closed. 

One result of these changed conditions of which we have been 
speaking has been to destroy a type of our country life that 
seemed ideal. The head of the family — and there were families 
in those days — was like a patriarch, ruling his household with 

there seemed no better way to interest this assembly of former residents 
of Berlin who have returned for Old Home Day, than to present to you 
the material gathered regarding the homes and activities of your ancestors 
and their neighbors. 

For much valuable information received especial acknowledgements 
were due Miss Abby Pattison, Wm. A. Riley, Dea. Frederic North, James 
B. Carpenter, Wm. M. Fowler, Mrs. Caroline Porter Jones, Mrs. Leonard 
Hubbard, Erastus North and William Bulkeley. We would also render 
thanks at this time to all others who have so kindly assisted in bringing 
to memory the pictures of olden days in Berlin, long buried under the 
dust of modern strife. 

While no trouble has been spared to make each statement accurate, 
authorities have in some cases disagreed, and should errors be discovered, 
the indulgence of this audience is asked by the writ«r who would be 
grateful for corrections, or for further items of interest relating to our 
subject. I have not undertaken to say anything regarding the parish of 
Kensington, for the reason that some resident of that part of the town 
would know his field better than I, and again a description of Kensington 
would make a delightful subject for some future Old Home day. 



170 



HISTOEY OF BERLIN- 



dignity, reverenced by his children,' his apprentices and his 
hired servants. One of Berlin's "Fore-elders," at whose table 
more than a score of persons were fed daily, was quoted as say- 
ing that "As God was to the human race, so was the relation 
of the father to his family." Alas ! the tribe has gone never 
to return. 

While we regret that so little of the former enterprise 
remained for the development of its native town, still we feel 
honored that its talents have been absorbed in the prosperity of 
adjoining places. In many cities now famous for sheet metal 
work we can trace the skill of the workmen back to the original 
industry in Berlin. 

Our town had its full share of "wooden nutmeg" fame, for 
its enterprising manufacturers sent out by foot, by panniers 
on horseback, and by wagons, the goods made within its borders. 
By water from Middletown and ^^ew Haven to the southern 
states was the route taken by our early "drummers." The 
great West was then awaiting its time of development. 
^ The chief manufacturing enterprises of the town were in its 
tin shops, blacksmith and shoemakers' shops. The shoes were 
worn by the busy people and were shipped to distant markets. 

The blacksmiths were manufacturing metal workers, who 
made by hand, with blows of the hammer upon the anvil, every 
thing of iron and steel that was used, from nails, hinges, and 
latches for their houses, and tuning forks with which to pitch 
their psalm tunes, to shovels, hoes, scythes, and plows for 
the farm, while the tin manufacturers of Berlin commanded 
the trade of the country. 

The author of "Dwight's Travels" tells us that after the war 
with Great Britain, in 1815, "10,000 boxes of tinned plate 
was manufactured into culinary vessels in the Town of Berlin, 
in one year." It was a grave question to know what to do with 
the scrap tin. Piles of it are even now, occasionally, turned 
up by the plow, and the road leading from the hotel west, and 
from Brandegee's hill towards East Berlin is filled with the 
waste pieces of tin so that a team driven swiftly over the roads 
to-day will bring forth a resonant silvery ring. 



THE EARLY INDUSTRIES OF BERLIN 171 

It is interesting to learn that Charles Parker desired to locate 
his plant here on the corner opposite the post office. Had he 
done so the great works of the Charles Parker company in ^leri- 
den might have been in Berlin, and Berlin a city to-day instead 
of a country village surrounded by cities which had hardly a 
name when Berlin was well known and prosperous. 

At another time the Meriden Britannia Company thought 
seriously of combining with the tin shop now operated by Mr. 
Damon, and locating here as one business enterprise. We hear 
other similar stories. Why so many local factories were closed 
and so few outside factories could establish a footing here it 
is difficult to say; but this we know that the original layout 
of the Wew York, ISTew Haven & Hartford Railroad passed 
along the west side of the "Golden Ridge," providing for a 
depot on the corner in Lower Lane near Mr. Arnold's. But 
the farmers were unwilling to sell their land and cut up their 
farms; while the residents of ''The Street" fought the plan 
on account of the smoke, noise, and danger from fire, and to 
life and limb, so that the survey was changed and the road 
passed two miles to the west. The arguments that drove away 
the steam cars were undoubtedly used to repel manufacturing 
industries. 

An idea of the way our forefathers transacted their business 
can be gained from the following, as given by one of our oldest 
residents : 

When ships arrived at New Haven or Middletown, the mer- 
chandise for Berlin and towns beyond were loaded onto two-, 
four- or six-horse teams, as it was a common thing to see twenty 
or twenty-five of these heavily-loaded teams coming into Berlin 
like a long caravan. The night was generally spent at the 
taverns. The horses were stabled, but there was not room 
under the sheds for the wagons so they were left in the road 
and often lined the street on both sides for a quarter of a mile. 

Many of us remember the dust-colored, canvas-topped, inno- 
cent looking wagons that quietly passed through Berlin in strings 
of a dozen or more, carrying gunpowder from Hazardville to 
the seaboard, and we also remember the town ordinance that 



172 HISTORY OF BERLIN" 

tbej should not be left at the hotel or on the streets but should 
be stationed on the town hall green, under guard ; also we can 
recall the words of command from our fathers, and the tender 
admonitions of our mothers, to keep away from the wagons. 
Under these circumstances how attractive the wagons were! 
Each mother's son answered for his own obedience. 

In addition to Yankee ingenuity and enterprise the many 
streams with their water power have made jSTew England the 
manufacturing center of this continent. N'early all of the 
industries of Berlin that are in operation to-day are located on 
our streams, viz., the Mill river in Kensington, Belcher brook, 
west of Golden Ridge, Spruce brook, between Worthington 
street and East Berlin, and the Mattabessett in Beckley Quar- 
ter and in East Berlin. There were, however, formerly a great 
many factories and shops in Berlin without water privileges. 
The power was ^'horse-power" pure and simple. I offer this 
as a brief description of a horse-power that was in practical, 
daily operation in many places in Berlin one hundred years ago : 

A large wheel of, say, thirty feet in diameter, lay flat upon 
the ground moving around a shaft in the center, that was made 
fast and stationary. A trough about four feet wide ran all 
around the rim of the wheel ; a horse traveled in this trough, — 
walked or trotted. As he was tied to a post he could not leave 
the spot, but as he traveled he kept pushing the trough (and 
attached wheel) from under him. ISTow we have the wheel in 
motion, and to transmit power was only a question of mechanics. 
Generally the transmission was accomplished by friction. Thin 
iron plates were fastened under the trough; below the trough, 
and immediately below the horse, was located an iron pulley 
with shaft; the face of the pulley was the width of the iron 
plates, and was in contact with them. The weight of the horse 
in this trough made this contact close. As the wheel was moved 
by the horse, the friction turned the pulley ; the pulley turned 
the shaft. To the shaft was fastened another pulley of the 
proper size, on which ran a belt which turned the machinery in 
the shops. 

Perhaps I cannot better note the early importance of Berlin 
than to say that Edward Augustus Kendall, Esq., devotes thir- 



THE EARLY INDUSTRIES OF BERLIN 173 

teen pages to it in his book of "Travels through the Northern 
Parts of the United States, in the Years 1807 and 1808," and 
then, to quote the closing paragraph of his chapter on Berlin : 

Berlin has become a place of some notoriety, partly on account of 
a tin manufactory which has been established here. Its founder 
was one Patterson, a native of Ireland; and though it soon fell into 
many hands, it was long confined to Berlin. At present, however, 
the number of its tin manufacturers is increasing, many having 
scattered themselves through the to^\'ns below, and others having 
emigrated to the southward. One of those in Berlin employs sixty 
hands during the summer season. In the winter he removes to 
Philadelphia for the extension of his trade. The mode in which the 
wares are disposed of is that of peddling and barter. They are carried 
inside and outside of small wagons, of a peculiar and uniform con- 
struction, on journeys of great length, and are to be met with in 
all directions. From Philadelphia they cross the Allegheny moun- 
tains, and are probably seen on the Mississippi. They go into Canada 
and vend their wares in Montreal and Quebec. 

Dr. Dwight, in his "Travels," after commenting upon the 
methods used bj Berlin manufacturers in disposing of their 
products, says: 

They went with their wares to every part of the United States. 

I have seen them in 1797 on the peninsula of Cape Cod, and in the 
neighborhood of Lake Erie, distant from each other more than six 
hundred miles. 

They make their way to Detroit, four hundred miles further — to 
Canada and Kentucky, and if I mistake not to New Orleans and 
St Louis. 

Some idea of the industries of Berlin street, East Berlin, and 
Beckley Quarter may be obtained from the following table, 
which comprises only such as are mentioned in this paper and 
the list is not yet complete : 

Academies 2 

Ball-rooms 4 

Bandbox factories 2 

Blacksmiths 9 

Blind trimmings 1 

Book binderies 2 

Brooms 2 



174 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

Cabinet making 4 

Carpenter shops 2 

Carpets and rugs 1 

Carding mill 1 

Chair seating 1 

Cider mills 6 

Cider brandy distilleries 3 

Clock factories 2 

Clock and compass jewels 1 

Cotton factory 1 

Cooper 1 

Combs 1 

Carriages and wagons 9 

Corrugated shingles 1 

Drug stores 3 

Dry goods 3 

Foot stoves 2 

Fur goods 1 

General merchandise 4 

German silver spoons 1 

Grist mills 4 

Groceries 3 

Guns 1 

Hat factory 1 

Hoe, rake and chisel factory 1 

Horse market 1 

Iron bridges and buildings 1 

Japanning 1 

Law offices 2 

Milliner and dressmaker shops 3 

Mulberry groves, silk worms 2 

Nails, cut 1 

Ox yokes and wooden pumps 1 

Peat factory 1 

Percussion caps 1 

Pistols 1 

Plaster mill 1 

Saddler and harness shops 3 

Saloons 3 

Saw mills 1 

Schools — private 3 

Screws 1 

Scythes 2 

Shoemakers 12 



THE EARLY INDUSTRIES OF BERLIN 175 

Slaughters 3 

Spectacles and jewelry 1 

Stone and marble cutting 4 

Stamped copper and tin ware 1 

Stove factory 1 

Taverns and saloons 9 

Tailors 3 

Tin shops 12 

Tinners' tools 6 

Town piimps 2 

Whipping post 1 

Tan-bark mills 2 

Tanneries G 

Thread, cotton and silk factory 2 

Undertaker 1 

AVatch and compass jewels 1 

Wood turning 2 

Yam 1 



The memory of nearly all of us goes back to the time when 
the grocery and apothecary store, on the northwest corner of 
Main street and Berlin station road, was kept by Deacon Alfred 
l!^orth, and where from 1844 to 1886 he was consulted by the 
town, not only in his capacity of town clerk and treasurer, but 
as the trusted counselor and good friend of all. 

For many years previous to 1844 this stand was occupied 
by Josiah Edwards, Jr., who was assisted by one and another 
of his five sons, whose names were Lewis, Edward B., Alfred, 
Henry, and Elisha. 

x\t this store could be found groceries, dress goods — calico, 
merino, and silk — violin strings, jew's-harps, jewelry, crockery, 
drugs and medicines, and a little of almost everything needed 
for family use those days. Here also seventy years ago ''The 
Plartford Courant" was left for distribution in the neighbor- 
hood. 

It was said that the father of Mr. Edwards, who lived in the 
south part of the town, gave him $0,000 with which to start in 
business, and that the whole amount was lost through the ras- 



176 HISTOEY OF BERLIN 

cality of bis partner. The stairway and north part of the store 
were added at a later date, and were finished off for a tenement. 

The large double house north of the store, now owned by 
Luther S. Webster, was built in 1828, for two sons of Mr. 
Edwards — Edward B. and Henry, both of whom were engaged 
to be married. 

One day Henry drove to Hartford for a load of lumber to 
be used in the new house. On his way home, coming down a 
steep hill, he was thrown from the wagon in such a way that 
the wheels passed over his body, and he was killed. He had 
been an active member of the Second Congregational Sunday 
School and was remembered as a remarkably fine young man. 

The Edwards homestead, which formerly stood near the 
north side of the store, was moved, about 1862, north of the 
large house, and is now occupied by Miss Harriet L. Edwards, 
daughter of Edward B. Edwards. 

West of the Edwards house, at a distance of about 150 feet, 
was a large carriage factory. The business, which was started 
by Josiah Edwards, was continued by his son, Edward B., who 
had an extensive trade in the south, especially in Augusta, Ga., 
and in Wilmington, ]N'. C. The factory was burned in 1844, 
was rebuilt, and is now the main part of Mr. Damon's tin 
shop. Lewis Edwards, who learned the trade of book-binding, 
built the house next north of the old church, now owned by 
James W. Woodruff, and had a shop in his south yard. 

One Sunday noon a workman went into the bindery to wash 
and dress. On going out he left a cigar stump on a pile of 
papers which caught fire, and destroyed the building. 

An old letter, relating the circumstance, states that when the 
fire broke out, Priest Goodrich w^as preaching his afternoon 
sermon. He saw the flames and "with his knee buckles on," 
came down the pulpit stairs, with both hands upraised, and 
exclaimed : "The church is on fire !" The bindery was rebuilt, 
but soon after — about 1834 — Mr. Edwards moved to IJ^orwich, 
Conn., where, with his brother Elisha, he carried on the busi- 
ness for many years. The new shop built by Lewis Edwards 
was moved onto Hart street and made into a dwelling house 
for Leonard Pattison. 



THE EARLY IXDUSTKIES OF BERLI]!«' 177 

In the highway, south of the Edwards store, where the hay 
scales are now, was once the Town whipping post. The last 
man whipped there was Charles Stocker, a colored man, who 
lived on Caesar's Hill, and whose father gave the name to the 
hill. The crime was petty theft. Mr. William A. Riley 
remembered seeing him whipped, and he said "How he did 
holler." 

There is a legend that Charles Stocker's feet were so large 
that he always had to hang them outside of the wagon when 
he rode, because there was not room enough for them within. 
This is the man who pumped the organ in the old meeting 
house for so many years, and received for his services one pair 
of shoes each year. That both facts are recorded goes to show 
that the church was very liberal in its appreciation of organ 
blowing. 

In early times this end of the town was known as "Boston 
Corners." In 1796 Benjamin Galpin was licensed to keep a 
tavern on the southwest corner, which was then the regular 
stopping place for post-riders. After the Hartford and New 
Haven turnpike was completed in 1800, the Boston and New 
York stages changed horses at this same tavern. 

In 1813 Jesse Hart, a cabinet maker, who lived in the brick 
house on Willard street now owned by Mr. LeClair, purchased 
the tavern at Boston corners and became its landlord. Mr. 
Hart was appointed postmaster and the oflfice was kept in his 
house not only for all of this town but for surrounding places. 
Until 1825 New Britain people came to Berlin for their letters, 
weekly newspapers, and express parcels. 

Where the hotel shed now stands there was a store, when 
the place was sold to Mr. Hart. The next year, his son George, 
who was a sheriff, placed overhead in that store for safe keep- 
ing, a lot of household goods that had been attached for debt. 
At night a fire broke out. A fresh coat of paint had just been 
put on the building and the flames ran over it like wild-fire. 
In the morning nothing remained of the store, barns or tavern, 
but ashes. George Hart, who was the first husband of Mrs. 
Col. Bulkeley, and the father of Mrs. Harriet Dickinson, died 
in 1825, at the age of thirty. It was said that he caught his 

12 



1Y8 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

death cold going out at midnight to wait for the mail. Jesse 
Hart rebuilt, but died in 1827 and was succeeded by his son-in- 
law, ITorris Wilcox, who afterwards went to New Haven, where 
he was appointed United States Marshal and collector of that 
port. 



In 1839 a Portuguese slave trader touched at Cuba and dis- 
posed of a cargo of negroes. The planter who bought them 
wished to take them to a distant port, and forced them, while 
still in irons, onto another vessel. The blacks under their 
chief, whose name was Cinque, mutinied and killed all but 
one of the crew, whose life was saved in order that he might 
manage the vessel, and he was ordered to steer for Africa. In 
the daytime he directed his course due east, but when night 
came and the negroes slept, he turned about and headed for 
the United States. 

In the course of a few months they brought up on the coast 
of Long Island, and Deputy Norris Wilcox, in whose charge 
they were placed, locked them in the l^ew Haven jail to await 
the action of United States courts. They were considered a 
great curiosity, and people flocked to the sight, as to a circus. 
Colonel Bulkeley and his wife went down from Berlin to see 
them. The colonel gave a silver quarter to Cinque, who showed 
his gratitude by turning a double somersault backwards. 

After two or three years of controversy it was decided to 
take the entire company back to Africa, but meanwhile some 
benevolent individuals wished to Christianize the heathen 
brought to their doors, and a car load of them was brought by 
ITorris Wilcox to Berlin station, whence they were taken in 
sleighs to Farmington. Mr. William Bulkeley remembers, as 
a child, going to the old depot to see these Africans. 

When the Black Prince and his company, who had been 
placed under bonds for mutiny, reached Farmington, they were 
housed in barracks that were built for them, near the cemetery. 

After a spasm of terror at the thought of having a lot of 
savages — and for aught they knew, cannibals — at large in their 
midst, the good people of Farmington, judging from old 



THE EARLY IXDUSTRIES OF BERLIN' 179 

accounts, gave their dark-skinned visitors the freedom of the 
town. 

So kind and faithful did they prove, that mothers trusted them 
with the care of their little children. Grabbo, Phillie, Fuli, 
Famie, and Foone, are some of the names remembered by those 
who knew them. While confined in jail at Xew Haven, some 
Divinity School students had labored hard, and with some suc- 
cess, to teach them to read and write. 

Again at Farmington, they were sent to school in a room over 
the present post office. In the village cemetery may be seen a 
simple marble stone with this inscription : 

FOONE 

A native African who was drowned while bathing? in the center 
Basin Aug 1841. He was one of the Company of Slaves, under 
Cinque, on board the Schooner Amisted, who asserted their rights 
and took possession of the vessel, after having put the Captain, Mate, 
and others to death, sparing their masters Ruez and Montez. 

Miss Porter's laundry was afterwards built over the Center 
Basin. It was thought that Foone committed suicide, as he 
was very homesick, and the day before had said, "Foone going 
to see his mother." 

The late John T. Norton, whose home is now owned by Mr. 
ITewton Barney, had befriended the negroes, and his son, 
Charles L. Norton, who remembered the incident, relates that 
as the family sat on the porch at evening, a dark figure strode 
up the path, went straight to his father, and said in broken 
accents, "We — want — you — Grabbo he daid," and sped away, 
the big tears rolling down his cheeks. 

In 1842, the thirty-six survivors were taken back to Mendi, 
on the west coast of Africa, near Liberia. Teachers and funds 
were provided and thus the Mendi mission was formed. 



In 1834, Roswell C. Hart followed Norris Wilcox as land- 
lord of the Berlin hotel. 

In 1842, James B. Whaples purchased the property, and 
with the help of his efiicient wife, and daughters, made it a very 



180 HISTORY OF BEELI]:^ 

popular place of resort, especially in winter, for sleighing 
parties. 

The writer has often heard old residents of Southington, 'New 
Britain, and Meriden laugh as they recalled the suppers, 
dances, and good times they had enjoyed at Blinn Whaples' 
tavern, in Berlin, when they were young, A large sign swung, 
creaking in the breeze, from a crane extending over the street, 
from the ridgepole of the horse shed ; and below the sign was a 
well, with a large wooden pump, and a long horse trough. This 
place was the hay market for the surrounding country, and here 
also were brought horses for sale and exchange. 

The great barns and sheds bear silent witness to the traffic in 
horses and other business that was carried on at this corner. 
One large barn that stood on the west side has been torn down. 



At the time of the Revolution, one stage left Hartford each 
Monday morning for Boston, and one for ISTew York. They 
reached their destination Wednesday night and started to return 
next morning, arriving at Hartford Saturday evening. 

In 1802 a daily stage left Boston at 10 a. m., which reached 
Hartford at evening of the following day, and noon of the next 
day it was in New York. 

Passengers had to be ready at the regular stopping places 
along the line, at whatever hour of the day or night the stage 
might be due. Hartford people had to take it at three o'clock 
in the morning. 

When the time between ISTew York and Philadelphia was 
reduced from three to two days, the coaches were called "Flying 
machines." 

At the close of the Revolutionary War, the treaty of peace 
with Great Britain was signed at Versailles, January 20, 1783. 
The news reached Berlin and Hartford March 23, nine weeks 
later, by way of Philadelphia. After 1831 there were two 
stages each way and the horses were changed at Berlin. When 
nearing the town, the driver of the stage sounded his bugle as 



THE EARLY INDUSTRIES OF BERLIN 181 

a warning to the landlord not to keep his hungry passengers 
waiting for dinner. As the coach, crowded inside with travelers, 
its top piled high with trunks, drawn by four horses, rolled 
through the village, everybody in the houses ran to the windows, 
and it is said that the wife of Dr. Hand used to stand in her 
front doorway and make courtesies to the passengers. 



The property next south of the hotel was owned by Joseph 
Booth, who built the front part of the house in 1800. The large 
ell was added later. In the corner of the lot, on the north side 
of the house, Mr. Booth had a shop for making hats. These 
hats were made of wool or skins. The boys of the neighborhood 
earned many an honest dollar by catching mink and muskrats 
and selling the skins to Mr. Booth, to be worked up into hats. 
The old gentleman was very deaf and alwa^'s carried an ear 
trumpet. He was a good trader and invariably understood the 
price at about half that mentioned by the boys, and then would 
never settle on any basis except according to hearing. 

Just north of Mr. Booth's hat factory was a small building 
occupied by Alfred Wood for the manufacture of spectacles and 
jewelry. 

In 1844 Deacon Alfred l^orth leased and joined the hat and 
spectacle factories and started business in them as a country 
merchant. A few months later he moved to the old store on 
the corner previously mentioned and these buildings were used 
for making cigars. 

On August 1, 1800, George Hubbard, who built the house 
now the home of the Misses Churchill, deeded for the considera- 
tion of $82.50 a piece of land to ''The Worthington Academy 
Company" and their heirs, bounded as follows: "West on 
country road, north on Daniel Galpin's land, easterly and 
southerly on land of George Hubbard Grantor." The deed 
was made to Amos Horsford, Boger Riley, Giles Curtis, Samuel 
Porter, Jesse Peck, Joseph Galpin, and their associates — "the 
Academy Company," who proceeded to build on this ground 
opposite the tavern, Berlin's first academy. 



182 HISTOEY OF BERLIN 

For some reason, the project was not sustained, and the 
property was sold to James Guernsey, who had a harness and 
saddler's shop on the premises. The south upper floor, which 
was still used for private schools, singing schools, and other 
public meetings, was known as Guernsey's Hall. George Dun- 
ham and Caroline Guernsey are names recalled of teachers 
who had private schools in this hall. About 1831, Mr. Guernsey 
sold out to Lysis Lamb, who added to the north side of the 
house a large shop, where he made tin ware, and gave employ- 
ment to a number of men. 

Mr. Lamb was succeeded by James B. Carpenter, who 
remodeled the house. The shop was moved up on the hill north 
of the Lyman ISTott place and is now the main part of George 
Austin's dwelling house. 

Following south, the next place was owned for many years 
by Dr. Horatio Gridley, who was a skillful physician. Dr. 
Gridley's next door neighbor on the south was Daniel Dunbar, 
Esq., who practised law in Berlin from 1804 to 1841, His 
ofBce stood in the north front corner of the yard. 

The Dunbar place, now owned by Mrs. Harriet Hopkins, 
was occupied in 1848 by one McCartney, who enlarged the 
office for a grocery store and liquor saloon. The town at this 
time was tremendously excited over the temperance campaign, 
and the influence of this saloon was considered particularly bad. 
The wholesale liquor dealers of Hartford sympathized with 
their patrons and urged them on to deeds of violence. It was 
then no uncommon sight to see drunken men reeling on the 
streets, and women who ventured from home after dark, with- 
out protection, were subject to insult. One officer, who had 
attempted to do his duty, found his cow poisoned, and another 
good citizen after attending an evening meeting discovered that 
his harness had been cut into small pieces. Acts of villainy far 
exceeding these will be described later. 

The addition built by McCartney was moved onto Willard 
street by John Graham, who used it as a wood-turning shop, 
operated by a wheel in the cellar run by horse power. Later 
it was made into a dwelling house and is still used as a residence. 




The Old Worthington Academy in 1916 
(Built in 1833) 



THE EARLY INDUSTRIES OF BERLIN 



183 



Squire Dunbar's office, after his death in 1841, was pnt to 
various uses, before it was taken for :^rcCartney'8 barroom. 
Colonel Bulkeley made it his office when he was town clerk, 
and the Millerites held their meetings there while they were 
preparing to ascend the skies. At last it was moved and 
attached to the rear of Mrs. Hopkins' house, where it still 
remains. 



A new generation having arisen since the first academy was 
abandoned, a second joint stock company was formed under the 
name of ''The Worthington Academical Company." The first 
annual meeting of the company was called at six o'clock, Febru- 
ary 7, 1831, at "Woodbridge's Ilotell," and officers were 
appointed as follows : 

Daniel Dunbar, Esq., president. 
Josiah Edwards, secretary. 
Horatio Gridley, treasurer. 

DIRECTORS. 
Elishama Brandegee, jr., Daniel Dunbar, Horatio Gridley, Josiah 
Edwards, Allen Beckley, William Savage, Joseph Booth, jr., James 
Guernsey, Reuben North. 

Their constitution read in part as follows : 

Art. 7th. When the sum of 700 dollars shall be raised, the Directors 
are authorized to purchase of Mrs. Ahnira Barnes & her children a 
convenient plot of ground, on the comer of their lot, a little south 
of the dwelling House of Jacob Booth, and fortliwith to erect a 
Building thereon for an Academy, the lower room to be occupied 
for an academy school & the Upper Room for Religious Conferences, 
Lectures & Singing schools & for Public Exhibitions of the Academy, 
also for Society meetings, school society meetings, & a Library room 
when necessary. 

Art.. 8th. And provided the Presbyterian Church in ^^ orthington 
will subscribe the sum of 125 dollars to be applied toward finishmg 
the Upper Room, arching it and finishing the stairways, said room 
shall be subject to their use and control so long as they continue to 
keep it in repair. 



184 HISTOET OF BEKLIlSr 

The land was purchased from the widow of Blakeslee Barnes 
for $250.00. Three hundred and eleven shares of stock were 
taken bj residents of the town at $5.00 per share, and the work 
of building was started at once. 

In 1835, the school had become so popular that to accommo- 
date its pupils, numbering between one and two hundred, the 
entire building was required, and the Academy Company bought 
out the rights of the Ecclesiastical Society, who built a chapel 
directly across the street. This chapel, a one-story unpainted 
building, was also used for singing schools and lectures. 



'Next south of the chapel was a fine old colonial house, known 
as the Joseph Galpin place. It was noted for the beauty of 
its front entrance, with a double door, the frame ornamented 
by carvings. 

In 1856, the Eev. Asahel C. Washburn, who came here 
from Suffield, tore down the Galpin house to make room for 
his modern home. At the same time he bought the chapel with 
the land on which it stood and moved the building back and 
attached it to his barns. 

In the rear of his barns, Mr. Washburn ran a steam grist- 
mill and a large sign over the street entrance announced the 
business carried on. The place was sold to Deacon Increase 
Clapp, who moved to California in 1876. Shortly before this 
time the house, while occupied by a tenant, was burned. 

The large house next south of the Joseph Galpin place, which 
is now owned by Marcus E, Jacobs, was built by Blakeslee 
Barnes, who carried on business as a tinner in a shop situated 
in his yard. Mr. Barnes died in 1823 and after some years 
Captain l^orman Peck purchased the property. The shop was 
moved down onto the triangle made by the division of the 
roads on the way to the station from Berlin street, and was 
called Captain Peck's farmhouse. About this time Captain 
Peck was in need of a man to work on his place. He went 
to Nev7 York and returned with an Irishman — the only one 




■f. = 



THE EARLY INDUSTRIES OF BERLIN 185 

employed at that time in Berlin. Mrs. Emily Galpin Bacon, 
now eighty-eight years old, born in the house opposite the acad- 
emy, remembers that when she was a child she used to see a 
Patrick McGuire at work on that same Captain Peck place 
when it was occupied by the Barnes family. Patrick had a 
daughter, who grew up to be a stylish young woman. She had 
a talent for drawing, which she tauglit in classes in Hartford. 

Deacon Alfred E^orth remembered when there was only one 
Irishman in the whole town and he lived in ISTew Britain. 

One day a son of Erin, who had taken up his abode in Berlin, 
presented himself before the registrars to be made a voter. 
In order to show that he could read, he carried his prayerbook 
and, as he was reading along glibly, the town clerk, whose 
suspicion was aroused, stepped back of him and saw that the 
book was upside down. 

Hyram Mygatt, who was an ornamental carriage painter, 
married Anna Booth, daughter of Joseph Booth. They lived 
in a large, pleasant house directly opposite the new Congrega- 
tional church. Mr. Mygatt had a shop at the back of the 
premises where tin was japanned and baked. When !Mr. 
Mygatt died, in 1831, James Guernsey came to this place from 
the north end of the village. The harness shop built by Mr. 
Guernsey in the old academy yard was quite a traveler. It 
was moved west of the hotel, then to the northeast corner of 
the yard where the new Congregational church now stands, then 
across south of the Mygatt house, where it was used by Mr. 
Guernsey for the making and repair of harnesses and saddles 
until he gave up business when it was taken down to Hart 
street and made into a dwelling house. Finally, one Fourth of 
July, some boys celebrating set it on fire and it was destroyed. 

Helen Guernsey had a shop in her father's house for millinery 
and dressmaking. 

James Guernsey, Jr., the only son of Mr. Guernsey, went 
to California with a number of his acquaintances, in search 
of gold, and there went through the experience common to 
those days. When the time came for him to return, instead 
of going around the Horn, he crossed the Isthmus, in the sum- 



186 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

mer of 1852, caught the Panama fever, and died in one week 
after reaching home. The event caused much excitement in the 
neighborhood and one man ran through the street crying at 
the top of his voice, ''James Guernsey is dead, James Guernsey 
is dead." He was heard plainly as far as Colonel Bulkeley's. 

Following Mr. Guernsey, the place was occupied a number 
of years by ISTorman Porter, Jr., who, in 1863, moved to 
San Jose, Cal. ; then by the family of Ansel Talcott, and lastly 
by S. C, Twitchell. One night, in the fall of 1876, the house 
caught fire from a defective flue and was burned to the ground 
with most of its contents. 

The two houses standing next south of the new academy were 
built by Elishama Brandegee, the father of Dr. Elishama 
Brandegee. The one nearest the academy, long the home of 
Dr. Brandegee and his family, was desigiied for the teacher 
and was occupied by Ariel Parish. The other, now the par- 
sonage of the Second Congregational Church, strange to relate, 
was built to be used as a parsonage by the Rev. James McDon- 
ald, who was settled here 1835-1837. 

The name and reputation of Dr. Brandegee, the trusted and 
beloved physician of nearly every family in town, is too well 
known to need any extended notice. 

The place next north of the new Congregational church was 
owned by Capt. Nathaniel Cornwell, who carried on business 
as a tailor, in a shop attached to the south side of his house. 
The property was purchased by the Rev. Joseph Whittlesey, 
pastor of the Second Congregational Church, 1838-1841, who, 
after resigning his charge conducted a school in his home. 

Close to the street, on the lot where the church now stands, 
was the home of Deacon Daniel Galpin, and over by the south 
fence was the shop where he made wooden pumps and ox-yokes. 
His daughters, Hetty and Mary, to whose memory Mrs. Dodd 
has paid graceful tribute, had a school in the north front 
chamber of the house. Deacon Galpin was a Revolutionary 
soldier and he had also the honor of being the first red-hot 
abolitionist in the town of Berlin.. He died in 1844, aged 
eighty-eight. In 1850, this Galpin place was taken as the site 




Elishama Brandegee, M. D. 

(From a jialnting by Robert BolliUK IJramlegee) 



THE EARLY INDUSTRIES OF BERLIN 187 

of the new church and tlic old lioiise was moved by John L. 
Dowd, aronnd sonth of the residence of the late W. A. Riley. 
It is now owned by Mrs. William Pierce. If you care to see 
Deacon Galpin's front door step, go down the walk south of the 
church to the eastern entrance, leading to the basement. 

Phineas Squires, the maternal grandfather of William A. 
Riley, was a man of wealth and prominence. He built or 
remodeled the house next south of Daniel Galpin's, now owned 
by Miss Julia Hovey. 

The property was purchased by the Rev. Samuel Goodrich, 
who was the third pastor of the Second Congregational Church, 
1811-1833. He was the father of a distinguished family. 

His son, the Rev. Charles A. Goodrich, was the author of a 
History of the United States that was used many years as a 
text book in the schools of the country. 

Another son, Samuel G. Goodrich, known as "Peter Parley," 
edited a magazine and wrote many tales for young people. 

He also wrote a "Child's History of the Western Hemi- 
sphere" which, with its pictures, was a delight to the children 
in our schools fifty years ago. 

Mr. Goodrich was ably assisted in his work by Hawthorne. 

A daughter, Mrs. Abigail Goodrich Whittlesey, edited "The 
Mothers' Magazine," so highly prized by the families of her 
generation. 

The Rev. Charles A. Goodrich, who was a public-spirited 
citizen, continued to live on his father's place until 1847, when 
he removed to Hartford, where he died in 1862. Mr. Goodrich 
had a comfortable study in his south yard where he could be 
quiet while working on his books. That building is now 
attached to the rear of Mrs. William A. Riley's house. 

The Rev. Samuel Goodrich, who found the Worth ington 
church in a veiy low condition, was deeply loved and reverenced 
by his people. The children thought, as one who remembers 
him expressed it, that he was a "Jesus Christ man" and that 
he came straight from God. When this lady was an infant 
she was very ill, and Mr. Goodrich was called to pray for her. 
She recovered, and as he watched the child growing up to 



188 HISTORY OF BEKLIlSr 

womanhood, be would lay his hand on her head and say, 
"Spared monument." 

The attractive colonial house situated opposite the Goodrich 
place was built by Priest I^athan Fenn, who was the first 
minister settled over Worthington parish. He was ordained 
1780 and died 1799. The inscription on his tombstone reads 
as follows : 

In his pastoral office he was faithful; in the duties of piety con- 
stant; in every relation kind and affectionate; and to all men 
hospitable and benevolent. 

Jesse Eddy, who succeeded Mr. Fenn as owner of the prop- 
erty, had a large tin shop that stretched across the south yard, 
where many men were employed. 

This shop was burned and rebuilt. Mr. Eddy was assisted 
in his business by his sons, George and Frederic. 

One Sunday, a warm day in summer, George went with a 
companion to East Berlin and went in bathing at the factory 
pond. The water was unusually high, after a heavy rain, and 
George was drawn by an undercurrent over the dam and was 
drowned. Fifty men turned out to search for his body but it 
was not until after the water subsided that it was found caught 
in a tree. 

Mr. James B. Carpenter purchased the Eddy shop and moved 
it down west of Deacon jSTorth's store, where it forms the resi- 
dence part of Mr. Damon's place. 

IvTathaniel James married the daughter of Jesse Eddy, and, 
after that, the family used the house as a summer residence 
only, while their winters were spent in ISTew York City. 

Afterwards, the Rev. Seth Bliss owned the property for 
several years. It is now the residence of Charles S. Webster. 

The house next south of the Eddy place was once the home 
of Dr. Austin, and in 1823 the noted singing teacher, Flam 
Ives, with his wife, boarded with the family. Timothy Butler, 
who lived in the next house, was a great hunter and a lover of 
dogs. 

One Sunday, about 1847, he, with Peleg Chapman, went over 
on the West Mountain in search of a fox. Mr. Butler's doar had 



THE EARLY INDUSTRIES OF BERLIN 189 

run the animal to his den under a large rock, and was digging 
the earth away with all his might, when Chapman crawled 
under to help him. Suddenly he cried out, "Call off your dog, 
Tim, the rock is falling." It was too late for dog or man, and 
Chapman was crushed to death. Word was brought to the 
village at noon and every able-bodied man and boy rode or 
walked to Kensington to help lift the rock. The women and 
children who made up the audience in the old church that 
afternoon never forgot the solemn sermon preached by Mr. 
Woodworth, 

The Universalist church that formerly stood on the site now 
occupied by the hall of the Order of United Mechanics was a 
well proportioned building, with long windows and a cupola, 
similar to that on the Academy. 

It was built in 1831, and when the society disbanded, it was 
purchased by the Methodists, who in turn disbanded and sold 
the building to the Mechanics. 

The house just south of this property was the home, until 
1848, of Dr. Sylvester Bulkeley, the father of Mrs. John 
Brandegee. 

Afterwards, the place was occupied by Mrs. Justus Bulkeley, 
"Aunt Ruth" as she was generally called, and her famil}- of 
bright, pleasant daughters. 

Francis Chambers, Esq., assistant clerk for many years of 
the Supreme Court of Hartford county, had an olfice here, and 
took for his wife, Mrs. Bulkeley's daughter Mary. 

Back of the Bulkeley house was a famous mulberry grove. 

Adjoining the Bulkeley place were extensive sheds and barns 
used by John H. Webber, Jr., as a livery stable, and as a 
starting place for stage and 'bus for Berlin depot. 

At noon of Easter Sunday, 189 G, a dense cloud of smoke was 
seen rolling up the lane way north of the Universalist church. 
A bam at the rear owned by Mr. Riley had been set on fire — 
it was supposed by boys smoking cigarettes. 

The church bell rang frantically. Everybody seized a water 
pail and rushed to the scene, but the flames only laughed at 
their feeble efforts and ran on to devour, not only all the 
buildings at the Bulkeley place and the Warrens' barn, but the 



190 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

good church edifice, and the whole village seemed doomed to 
destruction, when an engine driven at breakneck speed arrived 
from ISTew Britain. 

Across the street from the Universalist church was the 
original Riley homestead, occupied by Roger Riley, Esq., who, 
after acting as Justice of the Peace for many years, was in 1798 
elected town clerk. With the exception of one year, he held the 
office until 1816. He was universally respected and was the 
man of his time to whom everybody went for advice. He was 
a saddler by trade, making use of the West Indies as his market. 
His shop was north of his house and the leather for his saddles 
was tanned in a vat at the rear of the Universalist church. 

His dwelling house, which stood within about three feet 
of the sidewalk, was also a hotel with a ballroom. The barns 
and sheds were on the east side of the street. It is said that 
General Washington stopped at this place and patted the heads 
of his twin boys, Moses and Aaron. Moses was the father of 
the late William A. Riley. 

The shop was afterwards used by a milliner, and as a shoe- 
maker's shop by Joseph Savage. 

The Rileys owned large tracts of land on both sides of the 
road, and their front yard extended south nearly to the corner. 
There is a well near the comer, which was used in connection 
with a cider mill in operation at that point. The well of the 
old Riley house is in the cellar of the house now owned by Mrs. 
William Pierce. 

According to the grand list of 1790, Roger Riley was then 
the wealthiest man in Worthington parish ; his taxable property 
was rated at $425.44. Roger Riley, Esq., was a superior pen- 
man, and it is a pleasure to-day, after the test of a hundred 
years, to read the Town records, written in his firm, round hand. 
Mr. Riley died in 1822, at the age of eighty-five, forty-six 
years after the Declaration of Independence, when he showed 
his patriotism by enlisting in the War of the Revolution. 

Miss Abby Pattison remembered seeing him, in his last 
years as he stood in his front door way, "A little old man." 

After the death of Squire Riley, the premises were rented, 
until the house became so rickety that no families except those 



THE EARLY IJ^DUSTKIES OF BERLIN 191 

objectionable to the neighbors, would live in it. Finally, at a 
time when it was vacant, the boys of the village decided to 
take its destiny into their own hands. Night after night they 
assembled, with axes and saws, and worked away inside at the 
timbers, until all were severed from the foundation. 

One of their number, now^ a law-abiding and highly respected 
citizen of the town, stood sentinel outside, to give alarm by a 
whistle, whenever he hoard footsteps approaching. 

When all was in readiness, ropes were attached, and with a 
long pull, and a strong pull, the old house, whose walls might 
have told many an interesting tale of colonial days, was laid a 
wreck on the ground. 

On the corner, south of the Riley property, Frederic Hins- 
dale put up a large building, which he used as a bookstore and 
a bookbindery. A Bible bought at this place in 1824, by Alfred 
ISTorth, then a lad, is still among the attic treasures of his 
family. 

Mr. Hinsdale died in 1831, at the age of thirty-six. He left 
an interesting family of children, whose names were, Frederic, 
Hezekiah, Sarah, Susan, and Julia. They lived in the brick 
house now owned by Leon LeClair. Jesse Hart, before assum- 
ing the position of landlord, at "Boston Corners," in 1813, 
lived at this place, and here conducted his business as cabinet 
maker. He made coffins for $2.50 each, as shown by the old 
town records. 

At the store, after Mr. Hinsdale, came William and George 
Loveland, who carried a stock of general merchandise. The 
Loveland brothers were succeeded by Cowles & Durand, who 
afterwards went to Kensington, and kept a store near the old 
depot, where they failed in 1846. 

At the corner here, Cowles & Durand were followed by 
Isaac Dobson, who made tin ware. Mr. Dobson also lived in 
the brick house and, like Mr. Hinsdale, died young — 1847, 
age forty-three. He had two sons and four pretty daughters: 
Francis, Joseph, Sarah, Julia, Caroline, and Minerva. 

Consumption made sad havoc among the young people of 
those days. Among its victims were all the children of Fred- 
erick Hinsdale, except Sarah, who was the wife of Jacob 



1D2 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

Brandegee, and all the Dobsons but Francis, who, at last 
accounts, was living in Boston. 

In 1848 John Graham took possession of the property on the 
corner, and carried on an extensive business, making carriages 
and wagons. At the time of his death, in 1855, Mr. Graham 
employed thirty men, and was turning off wagons at the rate 
of one a day. They were drawn in long strings to Middletown 
in summer, and to I^Tew Haven in winter, to be shipped south 
by water. Mr. Graham's account books show that some of his 
largest customers were the following: J. P. Stow & Co., 
Catawba, Ala. ; G. Taylor & Brother, Kensington, ]Sr. C. ; 
Robertson & Pettibone, Spata, Ala. ; Wood & Sage, Cross 
Roads, Jackson County, Miss. ; J. Delooche, Macon, Ga. ; 
Wymans & Damon, Augusta, Ga. ; J. B. Jacques, ITorth Caro- 
lina; also parties in Arkansas and Louisiana. 

The running part of a wagon made by John Graham soon 
after he came to the village, is still in daily use by Albert 
Pollard, and the wheels, with not a rattling spoke, seem good 
for another fifty years. 

Linus Comwell succeeded Mr. Graham in the carriage-mak- 
ing business, and later, while occupied as a grocery, the building 
was burned. 

Captain John "Hinsdil" lived near this corner and had a 
blacksmith shop in his dooryard. He died in 1793, aged eighty- 
six. His daughter, Lydia, was the mother of Mrs. Willard 
and Mrs. Phelps. 

jSTear the crosswalk, at the parting of the ways, as Willard 
street joins Worthington street, may be seen a little triangle. 
At this point, under the gravel, is a large flat stone and below 
the stone is a well, a hundred feet deep. Sixty years ago, over 
this well was a wooden platform, about ten feet square. From 
the platform, to the water, extended a log of wood, through 
which a hole was bored to admit a plunger, which was worked 
by a wooden handle, six or eight feet in length. 

This was a town pump, free to all, where the weary traveler 
could slake his thirst without trespassing on private property. 



THE EARLY INDUSTRIES OF BERLIN 193 

When this pump was in working order woe to the nnhicky 
urchin who offended his playfellows. A sousing of his head 
brought him quickly to repentance. 

(Additional notes supplementing the preceding paragraphs of this 
chapter, and contributed at a later date.) 

The Captain Peck farmhouse was once painted blue, and 
was known as the "Blue house." The burying ground, west 
of the house, received the name of "Blue house cemetery," 
and the bridge over the stream, on the north side, was called 
"Blue house bridge." 

I am unable to lay my hand on the statement at this time, 
but I have read, somewhere, that Priest Xathan Fenn was a 
chaplain in the Revolutionary War. 

The name of the man who was crushed by the rock on West 
mountain was Lafayette Chapman. Peleg Chapman was his 
father. They lived in a little one-story house, in the south 
district, on the corner, southwest of William Luby's, now vacant, 
where the old country road turns west, on to the Kensington 
four-rod highway. Mr. Chapman had nineteen children. His 
son George was an obstinate "Chap" and was often whipped 
terribly by the teachers in the south school, but he did not 
appear to mind his punishment in the least. 

The reference to the Universalist church reminded me of an 
incident connected with the raising of the building. It was 
on one Friday afternoon, when the Congregationalists had their 
preparatory lecture in the old meeting house. The frame of the 
new church was about ready to go up, when some one said, 

"Let's wait until the d d blue skins come along," and so 

they waited. At the right moment they put forth a mighty 
effort, but not an inch would the timbers budge, until the "blue 
skins" were out of siffht. 



On the east side of the street, opposite the town pump, at 
what is known as the Albert Warren place, Asahel Hart, a 
13 



194 HISTORY OF BEKLIISr 

brother of Jesse Hart, had a tailor shop. He died in 1821, 
aged fifty-seven years. His son. Freedom Hart, inherited the 
homestead, and used the tailor shop for the manufacture of 
combs. 

A man who once owned this property took offence at his 
neighbor, who lived in the Dr. Bulkeley house, and to spite him, 
he moved the shop from the south yard, around on the north 
side, close to the division line, so as to shut off all the sunlight 
from this neighbor. 

When Mr. Hart gave up his business, the shop was changed 
into a tenement, and later was moved to the hill north of the 
Eben Woodruff house. Its site is now occupied by the Berlin 
Free Library. 

Within the memory of the writer, the children of the village 
were allowed to romp in Mr. Warren's attic, where were stored 
quantities of old bone combs, made by Freedom Hart, like 
those that encircled the heads of our grandmothers, and towered 
high above their hair. 

Sixty years ago there was a little shop south of the Freedom 
Hart house, where the Loveland brothers made foot-stoves — an 
industry that has now passed out of existence. 

The little iron pan, within its frame of tin and wood, was 
filled with hard walnut coals, and covered with ashes, which 
held their heat a long time, and the stove was a great comfort 
on Sunday, as passed along, from one to another, in the pews 
of the fireless meeting-house. 

From the time as far back as the memory of the oldest living 
person goes, a prosperous store has been conducted at the stand 
south of the Freedom Hart place, which for many years has 
borne the sign of Henry JST. Galpin. 

JSTames obtained of those who have been at the head of the 
business here are as follows: Orrin Beckley, about 1810; 
Samuel Porter (died 1838, aged eighty-eight) ; Horace Steele 
& Dr. David Carpenter; Plumb & Deming, 1835; Benjamin 
Wilcox ; S. C. Wilcox ; Galpin & Loveland ; Henry IST. Galpin ; 
Strickland Bros., and lastly E. E. Honiss. This store formerly 
carried a line of everything that the community might need. 



THE EARLY INDUSTRIES OF BERLIN 195 

including drugs. Physicians' prescriptions were compounded 
here until, by mutual agreement, II. N. Galpin surrendered 
his drug department to Alfred Xorth, who, in exchange, gave 
up the sale of his drygoods to Mr. Galpin. 

It is worthy of note that in all the years that Mr. Galpin and 
Deacon ISTorth were fellow merchants, there was never the least 
rivalry or unpleasant feeling between them. 

Mr. Galpin was a public-spirited citizen, ready at all times 
to respond liberally to every good cause. He was also a man of 
sterling integrity, as one, who knew him well, said, she would 
not fear to trust him with the last cent she owned. 

In the store long known as that of Henry N. Galpin, Samuel 
C. Wilcox, who preceded Mr. Galpin, conducted business, in 
connection with a store in Wilmington, N. C, and goods were 
peddled through the south by teams. Communication between 
the two points was by sailing vessels, from New Haven to 
Wilmington. 

The list, in succession, of Berlin's postmasters, so far as 
known, is as follows: Samuel Porter, died 1818; Jesse Hart, 
died 1827 ; Norris Wilcox, removed to i^ew Haven; James M. 
Plumb, removed to ISTew York; Edward Wilcox; Jacob S. 
Brandegee; Edward Wilcox; Henry ]^. Galpin; Sherlock C. 
Hall; Walter D. Atwater; Henry IST. Galpin; Henry L. 
Porter; Albert B. Goodrich; Seth D. Strickland; Henry L. 
Porter. 

Samuel Porter, who heads the list, was one of the early 
occupants of the Galpin store, and, for the greater part of a 
hundred years, the post office was kept in this same place. 
Samuel C. Wilcox has said that, as a boy, it was his duty to 
wait for the eleven o'clock night stage, to receive and to trans- 
fer the mail bags. In order to be awake, he sat on the stoop, 
where he would bo aroused by the toot of the horn, which was 
always blown as the stage rattled down the hill by the south 
cemetery. Later he took the bag in at his bedroom window. 

At first, the mail was carried in a two-horse, homely, black, 
gypsy-like w'agon. A quick exchange of horses was effected 
at the various posts, and no passengers were allowed to ride 



196 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

with the mail. The mail express was carried on horseback. 
Without stopping, the messenger would leap from his jaded 
horse to one freshly saddled, and was away, like the wind, to 
the next station. 

Between ^N'ew Haven and Hartford, the regular places for 
exchanging horses were Wallingford, Meriden, Berlin, and 
Kewington. 

The Hartford and 'New Haven railroad received its charter 
in 1835, and in 1838 was completed from Kew Haven to 
Meriden. In 1839, trains were running to Hartford. In 
1844, the road had been extended to Springfield, but it was 
not until 1848 that it was possible for Berlin people to go to 
New York by railroad. As late as 1842, daily mail stages 
passed through Worthington street on their way between Hart- 
ford and New Haven. And then the glory of the old tavern, 
which it had enjoyed for nearly seventy years, departed. 

J. B. Whaples was the first mail carrier from Berlin depot, 
after the railroad was completed. At ten o'clock at night 
he would deliver the mail bag to the postmaster, who slept 
with it until morning. 

Thus far there has been no mention of a fire that occurred 
once on "Galpin corner." One day Mr. William Bulkeley 
was at work with his horse, on the ledge, when looking toward 
the village, he saw a little blaze coming out from the back of 
Mr. Galpin's barn. He quickly unhitched his horse, mounted 
its back, and started full tilt for the street, yelling "Fire." 

When he reached the store he jumped into another man's 
wagon, and drove down to the hotel for some ancient fire hooks 
that were then kept there under the horse shed. Mr. Galpin's 
barn was connected with the store by a long open building. 

The hooks were attached to this building, in order to tear it 
away, but the ropes were so tender with age, that they broke, 
and the hooks were useless. The flames spread until the store 
was destroyed, and the ell of the house, then occupied by 
Samuel C. Wilcox, caught fire. The men, in their determina- 
tion to save as much as possible, tore off the doors of the house, 
took out all the windows, removed the stairway balustrade. 



THE EARLY INDUSTEIES OF BERLIN 197 

pulled out the posts of the veranda, and even tried to tear away 
the mantels. 

Of course, the dwelling was not habitable in that condition, 
and arrangements were made for the family to go at once to 
the Major Curtis house, which stood on what is now the front 
lawn of Major Frank L. Wilcox, and was occupied then by 
]^oah C. Smith and his family. 

Mrs. Samuel C. Wilcox was a very nice housekeeper and was 
very sensitive, withal. She was deeply mortified, as she went 
out on the street, and discovered her furniture, the contents of 
her closets, the family wearing apparel, and all the rest of her 
belongings, strewn from the starting place along the banks the 
entire distance to the Curtis house. 

It is difficult, at this late day, to get dates, but a witness of 
this fire remembers that it was in the fall after Fort Sumter 
was fired upon. 

Mr. Galpin replaced the old frame store building by one of 
brick, which was extended a few feet north of the old line. 



The property opposite Galpin's store, now the home of the 
Misses Julia, Sarah, and Hattio Roys, daughters of the late 
Franklin Roys, was long known as the Elijah Loveland place. 
The house was once used by Mr. Loveland as a hotel. Accord- 
ing to George H. Sage, whose history of the "Inns of Berlin" 
was published in the Berlin Neivs of May 30, 1895, Mr. 
Loveland received his tavemer's license in 1797, and discon- 
tinued the business in 1812. There was a large addition on 
the north side of the house, with a ballroom on the second 
floor, which was often a scene of festivity. 

When Priest Goodrich was here, there was a revival in his 
church. It was before the chapel was built, and the extra 
meetings were held in Loveland's ballroom. One cold night, 
when the place was crowded, the air became so close that sud- 
denly every tallow candle went out, and all was in darkness. 
Mr. Goodrich, who feared that the people would attempt to 



198 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

go down the stairs and be injured, said in a commanding voice: 
"Keep still !" "Everybody keep still !" The people obeyed him 
and remained quietly in their seats until fresh air was admitted 
and the candles were again lighted. 

Elijah Loveland died in 1826, at the age of eighty-one. His 
son George, who inherited the homestead, had five sons and 
three daughters: William, George, Elijah, John, Henry, Sarah, 
Lois, and Maria. Henry, who remained at home, remodeled 
the old house and tore down the north part, that in later days 
had been used as a tenement. 

Mrs. C. B. Root, a tailoress, had for a time a shop in the 
lower rooms. The ballroom was used in the fifties by the 
Misses Pease and Stone, as a millinery and dressmaking 
establishment. 

The bar of the tavern was in the south front room and the 
money was kept in a corner cupboard in the next room back. 
When this cupboard was removed, Mr. Loveland found beneath 
it handfuls of sixpences and ninepences, that had slipped 
through the cracks. 

East from Mr. Galpin's, halfway down the hill, on the north 
side, was once a building, used for private schools, for religious 
meetings by the Methodists, and by the Universalists, and for 
other purposes. 

At the foot of the hill, on the south side, on the spot where 
Mr. Shumway's greenhouse now stands, the Booths had a tan- 
nery, during the first half of the last century. There were eight 
or ten vats inside and outside the building. Water was con- 
ducted into the vats from a spring in the lot now owned by 
Mr. Gwatkins. The tan bark was ground by horse power. 
The boys used to think it great fun to sit over the big wheel 
and drive the horse, to keep him going. Cowhides and calf- 
skins were tanned in the vats, to be made into boots and shoes. 
Men's jackets and breeches were also made from the leather. 
The inventory of Daniel Wilcox of East Berlin, who died in 
1789, has in the list, "Best leather breeches," "Second best 
leather breeches." 

Mr. Bulkeley remembers seeing cowhides strung on the fences, 
both sides of the road, from his father's, all the way to the 




/fCUzk^dA^L^^ 



THE EARLY INDUSTRIES OF BERLIN 199 

footbridge over the stream, in the valley below. The Booths 
also (lid considerable bnsiness in wool pnlling. Mr. Booth 
would go to the surrounding places where sheep were killed, 
and bring home the pelts, by the wagon load. The skins were 
placed in vats with lime until the wool was loosened. Then 
they were spread on slanting boards and stripped by hand. 
The skins were packed still wet into hogsheads and sent away 
to bo used for book covers and bindings. 

In hot weather the school children who had to pass the tannery 
used to hold their noses, and the young men who worked on 
the skins had to use a great deal of perfumery in order to make 
themselves agreeable to the girls whom they visited at evening. 

The wool was spread on large platforms to dry in the lot 
opposite the tannery. 

In later years, Almeron Bacon used the old tannery building 
for a marble- and granite-cutting yard. Mr. Bacon did off 
a part of the building for a tenament. In the lot southeast of 
the tannery was a distillery. 

The barn in the field across the way, that was burned in the 
fire of 1895, was built of timbers from the old Roger Riley 
house, and was used as a slaughter, conducted by Robert 
McCrum and George Patterson. 

Going east from the tannery, on the crest of the hill, at the 
left hand, stands a factory bearing the name of "Justus and 
William Bulkeley," who in 1823 started here in the business 
of making tinners' tools. Horse power was used at first and 
ten men were employed. The tools were forged in this shop, 
and then were taken to what is known as Risley's saw mill, 
to be ground and polished. 

Justus Bulkeley, who lived in the house east of the shop, died 
in 1844. His brother William continued the business and, in 
1850, put an engine into the factory. 

Colonel Bulkeley purchased his place in 1823 of Blakeslee 
Barnes, or of his estate. At that time the shop, and the house 
which is a part of that now occupied by the Rev. E. E. ISFourse, 
stood on the south side of the road, between the Bulkeley house 
and barn, and had boon used by Mr. Barnes for the manufacture 
of tinware. Mr. Bulkeley was a genial man, full of fun, and 



200 HISTORY OF BEELIN 

a good neighbor — one of the kind who would go out of his 
way to do a favor. In his day, whenever there was an auction 
in town, Colonel Bulkeley was called upon to conduct the sale. 
By his ready wit he made much fun for the people, as he led 
up to the final "Going, going, gone." 

The Sixth Connecticut Regiment was organized in 1739. 
Mi*. Bulkeley was colonel of that regiment, 1834-1836, and thus 
received his title. Colonel Bulkeley died in 1878, aged eighty- 
one. 

The Justus Bulkeley place was bought by Deacon Joseph 
Savage, who died there in 1857, aged sixty-three. 

Deacon Savage was remembered for his pleasant disposi- 
tion, and for his sweet tenor voice, with which he led the 
singing in the evening meetings. He used to start the tunes 
by aid of a long pitch pipe, and later he would hum the scale 
up and down to get the right key. 

The row of beautiful maple trees along the north side of the 
street in front of his property, was planted by Deacon Savage. 

Mr. ISToah Smith, who occupied the place in his later years, 
also planted many trees and vines on the premises. 

The large trees in front of the Bulkeley house, and down the 
hills toward the village, were planted by Colonel Bulkeley. 



At the beginning of the last century, when Elijah Loveland 
was keeping tavern, his next door neighbor, on the south, was 
John Dunham, a tinner, who carried on his business in a shop 
standing in his north yard. 

The Dunham house was burned. It was said that in her 
fright at the time of the fire, Mrs. Dunham shut herself into 
a closet. Her daughter Maria, who seized a heavy table and 
carried it across the street, remained, in consequence, an invalid 
all her life. The house was rebuilt and later was owned by 
Timothy Boardman, a skillful tailor, who employed, as appren- 
tices, a number of young men and women. 

Mr. Boardman, who was an excellent citizen, removed to 
Middletown in 1856. His shop, which stood on the north side 
of his premises, close to the Loveland line, is now a part of the 
house of W. H. Shumway, the florist, situated at the foot 



THE EARLY INDUSTRIES OF BERLIX 201 

of the hill going toward Colonel Biilkeley's. In 1864 the Rev. 
Daniel Francis, who succeeded Mr. Boardman, sold the prop- 
erty to Mr. Josiah Eobbins of Wethcrsfield, and it is still 
occupied by his daughter, Miss Francos C. Robbins. 



"Jacob Brandigee," the progenitor of all the Brandegee 
family in Connecticut, was born at Nine Partners, N. Y. At 
the age of thirteen he came to ISTewington. 

The jSTewington records state that "Jacob Brandigat" mar- 
ried October 11, 1753, Abigail Dunham. The family bible 
says he was twenty-two and Abigail sixteen when married. 
Jacob Brandegee owned the covenant at New Britain, July 
27, 1755. He was a weaver by trade. He was also engaged 
in the West India trade and sent out vessels from Rocky Hill. 

In 1762 he bought a tract of land at Christian Lane, in 
"Great Swamp," as all this section was called for twenty years 
after the first white settlers came. There was a house already 
on the land, and Mr. Brandegee set up a store, first near the 
home of the late Closes Gilbert, and afterwards opposite the 
jSTorman Porter house. 

He died at sea, on his passage from Guadaloupe to Connect- 
icut, March, 1765, aged thirty-six, as recorded on the tomb- 
stone erected to his memory in the South Cemetery in 
Worthington. We are told that a stone was erected to his 
memory in the Christian Lane burying ground, where some of 
his children were buried. All the Brandegee stones were after- 
ward removed to the family yard in Berlin Street. 

Jacob Brandegee's monument, now in the "Maple Cemetery," 
the name under which the south burying ground was incor- 
porated April 3, 1903, was placed there in 1834, by his 
grandson Jacob. His son Jacob died at Cape Francois, Jan- 
uary, 1786, aged twenty-one years. 

Jacob Brandegee's widow, Abigail (Dunham), married, sec- 
ond, Rev. Edward Eells of L'pper Houses, Middletown. She 
died January 25, 1825, at the age of eighty-six, and was 
buried in Cromwell, but her inscription was cut with that of 
her first husband on the monument in Maple Cemetery, Berlin. 



202 HISTORY OF BEELIN 

Jacob Brandegee had at Eocky Hill a little negro boy from 
Guinea, whom he had picked up on one of his voyages. Quam, 
as he was called, became very homesick. He said he wanted 
to see his mother, and begged to go back to Guinea. The 
Eocky Hill boys laughed at him. There was a keg of powder 
in the attic of the house, and one day the boys told Quam that 
if he would go up and sit on that keg and strike fire, he would 
go to Guinea, and would see his mother. Soon afterward Quam 
was missed. 

Mrs. Brandegee, — remember she was only a slip of a girl, 
just past sixteen — went up the attic stairs, and there sat the 
boy, as directed, in the act of striking a flint. Mrs. Brandegee 
ran for her life and escaped, but poor Quam ! 

The roof of the house was blown off, and the child's mangled 
body was found in the garden. It was buried there where it 
had fallen. When the Connecticut Valley railroad was built 
in 18Y1 it passed through this garden, and the workmen cast 
out, with their shovels, the skeleton of Quam. 

Elishama Brandegee, St., the oldest of the six children of 
Jacob, was born in 1754. He married Widow Lucy (Plumb) 
Weston in 1778, and came over to Worthington Street, where 
he settled on the property known as the "Mulberry Orchard" 
south of the John Dunham place. He also acquired consider- 
able land on the opposite side of the way. 

The Middletown and Berlin turnpike road, which was opened 
in 1810, passed down the eastern hillside, south of the Galpin 
place, through land owned by the Brandegee family. 

Elishama Brandegee was a Eevolutionary soldier. After- 
ward he followed the calling of his father, and sailed the seas 
as a merchant. His business was chiefly with the West Indies. 
He managed his own vessels and was always known as "Captain 
Brandegee." He died in 1832. The house in which he lived, 
situated on the west side of the street near the south boundary 
of his premises, is barely recalled by our oldest residents. A 
tall evergreen tree, recently removed, stood in the front yard 
and was for many years a landmark. 



THE EARLY INDUSTRIES OF BERLIiN" 203 

Among the historical articles exhibited by Mrs. R. M. Gris- 
wold at the Berlin Fair of September, 1905, was a set of 
liquor bottles from the brig Minerva, which sailed from the 
river ports of Connecticut to Spain and the West Indies, pre- 
vious to 1775. 

During the time when our country was weakened from its 
struggle for freedom, French privateers captured many Ameri- 
can vessels, one of which was the Minerva, owned in part by 
Capt. Elishama Brandegee. 

The United States had been unable to keep all the agreements 
of its treaty with France, made in 1778, and the two nations 
settled their difficulties by making one grievance offset another. 

Bills of indemnity, called ^'French Spoliation Claims," have 
been before our government for over a hundred years, but the 
heirs of Captain Brandegee have yet to receive their first penny 
on account of the loss of the good brig Minerva. 

In the days when the generation now come to the front 
was filled with youth and enthusiasm, whenever funds were 
needed for an extra church expense, or for unusual charitable 
objects, a festival, with tableaux and charades, was in order. 
In 1871, a carpet that had borne the impress of the feet of 
many a saint in its time of service, on the floor of the Congre- 
gational church, since its dedication, was in tatters. The 
young people of the society volunteered to raise money for 
a new carpet, and gave a well-planned and popular entertain- 
ment in the old town hall, on the evenings of January 3 and 
5, 1872. The gross receipts for the two evenings were $384. 

This seeming digression from our subject was suggested by 
the fact that at such times, while every attic in the village was 
ransacked (this was before the advent of rummage sales) for 
calashes, bell-crowned hats, swallow-tailed coats and all manner 
of old-fashioned garments, to be used in making up picturesque 
costumes for the occasion, the loan of a certain red silk gown 
was always desired. 

This gown was a purely domestic production, the work of 
the hands of Mrs. Lucy Brandegee. She reared the silk-worms, 



204 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

which she fed with leaves from the mulberry trees that sur- 
rounded her home. She spun and dyed the thread and wove the 
fabric, with the intention it was said of presenting the dress to 
Mrs. Martha Washing;ton. Somehow it missed its destination 
and was worn by Mrs. Brandegee. 

It is still in a good state of preservation, but is so highly 
valued that it would be presumptuous to attempt to borrow it 
to be used in the hasty scramble of dressing for a tableau or 
charade. 

Emma Hart began her career as a teacher at the age of seven- 
teen, in a schoolhouse which stood in that mulberry orchard, 
on the Brandegee place. It was in the year 1804. 

In the History of 'New Britain, by Prof. D. ]^. Camp, is 
an account of Miss Hart's first day's experience with her 
pupils, given in her own words, as follows : 

I began my work by trying to discover the several capacities and 
degrees of advancement of the children, so as to arrange them into 
classes; but they having been under my predecessor, accustomed to 
the greatest license, would, at their own option, go to the street door 
to look at a passing carriage, or stepping onto a bench in the rear, 
dash out of a window and take a lively turn in the mulberry grove. 
Talking did no good. Reasoning and pathetic appeals were 
unavailing. 

At noon, I explained this first great perplexity of my teacher life 
to my friend, Mrs. Peck, who decidedly advised sound and summary 
chastisement. 

"I cannot," I replied, "I never struck a child in my life." 

"It is," she said, "the only way and you must." 

I left her for the afternoon school with a heavy heart, still hoping 
I might find some way of avoiding what I could not deliberately 
resolve to do. 

I found the school a scene of uproar and confusion which I vainly 
endeavored to quell. Just then Jesse Peck, my friend's little son, 
entered with a bundle of nice rods. As he laid them on the table 
before me, my courage rose, and in the temporary silence which 
ensued I laid down a few Taws, the breaking of which would be 
followed with immediate chastisement. 

For a few minutes the children were silent, but they had been 
used to threatening, and soon, a boy rose from his seat, and as he 
was stepping to the door, I took one of the sticks and gave him a 



THE EARLY INDUSTRIES OF BERLIN 205 

moderate flogging; then with a grip upon his arm which made him 
feel that I was in earnest, put him into his seat. 

She then exhorted the children to be good, etc., but informed 
them that she must and would have their obedience. 
But she says : 

The children still lacked faith in my words, and I spent most of 
the afternoon in alternate whippings and exhortations, the former 
always increasing in intensity, until at last, the children submitted, 
and this was the last of corporal punishment in that school. 

Elishama Brandegee, St., had three sons and two daughters : 
Jacob, John, Elishama, Lucy, and Sally Milnor. Lucy was the 
wife of Major Giles Curtis ; Jacob settled in Xew York ; John 
went to New London; Elishama remained on the homestead 
at Berlin ; Sally Milnor died at the age of sixteen. 

As a man, Elishama Brandegee, Jr., was upright, kind, 
genial, full of public spirit, and a leader in many important 
enterprises of his day. According to the family tradition, he 
planted, at the age of twelve, on his father's premises, the two 
rows of stately maples that still remains a monument of the 
work of his boyhood. xVfter the Middletown turnpike road 
opened in 1810, he planted the trees on the south side of the 
way from the top of the hill down to the tannery. 

In 1811 he married Emily Stocking of Middletown Upper 
Houses. The next year he built, on the north side of the old 
homestead, the fine large house, now owned by W. S. Brandegee. 
The exact time is not known when he built the great rambling 
store, once so famous, that occupied the corner opposite his 
dwelling, but it was in full swing in 1811, with Elishama 
Brandegee, Jr., as proprietor. 

At this store was carried the largest stock of dry goods, 
groceries, boots and shoes, drugs, etc., to be found between 
Hartford and jSTew Haven. It was also the wholesale depot 
for dealers in surrounding towns. The people came here from 
Meriden and New Britain, and from all about, for miles 
away, to do their trading. Farmers' wives brought their butter 
and eggs to this store, where they could exchange them for 



206 HISTORY OF BEELIN 

finery — ^butter at twelve cents a pound and eggs eight cents a 
dozen. 

Twice a year Mr. Brandegee journeyed by stage to l^ew 
York to replenish his stock. His business there was mostly 
done on Pearl Street. The merchandise came by water to Mid- 
dletown, and was brought out to Berlin by teams of horses or 
oxen. The stock comprised many articles not to be found in 
country stores of this day. Labels on the drawers are recalled, 
as SILKS, SATINS, LACES, FINE SHAWLS, etc. In one 
drawer might be found dainty, colored kid slippers. 

Our grandmothers loved gay attire. Mrs. Lucy Curtis used 
to speak of wearing a pink satin dress on a steamboat excursion 
down the Connecticut river. 

It will give an idea of the part Mr. Brandegee bore in the 
interests of the town to say that when the new academy was 
built, he took two hundred of the three hundred and eleven 
shares subscribed at five dollars per share. 

On April 9, 1854, Mr. Brandegee was one of a hundred and 
thirty persons propounded for admission to the Second Congre- 
gational Church. The next day he died quite suddenly, while 
sitting in his chair. 

The children of Elishama Brandegee, Jr., were: Jacob, 
Dr. Elishama, Camillus, Marius, John, Henry, Sarah (Mrs. 
Barney), and Julia. John, who assisted his father in the store, 
kept up the business until 1856. Afterward, for a short time, 
Mr. Wilcox of Meriden used the building for the manufacture 
of hoop skirts and employed a large number of girls. 

Then for a long while the old store lay idle and the boys and 
girls of the village played hide and seek in the bins that were 
formerly used to hold sugar and other commodities. 

At last the huge old pile was torn down by William Sage. 
One small building, made from the lumber, stands opposite 
the house of C. M. Jarvis. It was once used by Mr. Sage as a 
stone cutter's shop. The door of that shop was one of the side 
front doors of the store. 

James H. Bunco, the well-known and prosperous dry goods 
merchant of Middletown, began his mercantile career as clerk 



THE EARLY INDUSTRIES OF BERLIN 



207 



for John Brandegee, and there are persons now living in Berlin 
who recall his polite and accommodating ways. 



At the close of the War of 1812, our country was burdened 
with a debt of a hundred million dollars, and business generally 
was paralyzed for want of money. The amounts attached to 
names in the following list, made in 1817, of the men who were 
at that time engaged in business in Berlin, will show one 
method taken to relieve the situation : 



LIST OF ASSESSMENTS FOR 1817 



MERCHANTS 

Elish Brandegee $ 80 

Pattison & Peck 80 

ATTORNEYS 

Daniel Dunbar 120 

PHYSICIANS 

David Carpinter 40 

Wm U Hand 40 



TAVERNERS 

Amos Kirby 

Jesse Hart 



25 
30 



BLACKSMITHS 

Reuben North 40 

Andrew Norton 10 

TINNERS 

Benjamin Wilcox 25 

John Dunliam 60 

Samuel Pattison 30 

John Hubbard 15 

WAGON MAKERS 

Freman Howard 25 

Salmon Warner 10 

CARPENTERS 

Urbane Kelsey 10 

Asahel Kelsey 10 

JOINERS 

Ch'ncey Shipman 15 

MASONS 

Jabez Dickinson 15 

Daniel Rice 15 



SADDLER 

James Guernsey 10 



HATTERS 

Joseph Booth 



20 



CABINET MAKERS 

Abijah Flagg 10 

BOOK BINDERS 

Elisba Cheney $40 

Levi North 10 

Jedediah North 20 

John Lee 10 

Lyman Latham 10 

Elias Beckley 10 

Allen Beckley 10 

SHOEMAKERS TANNERS 

Zenas Richardson 10 

Abijah Porter 10 

Seth Savage 10 

Elijah Stanley 25 

Elijah Smith 15 

Horrace Steel 15 

TAILORS 

Nath'n'l Comwel 10 

DISTILLERS 

Samuel Porter 10 

Lyman Wilcox 25 

CARDING MACHINES 

Jos R Wilcox 10 

Lvman Wilcox 10 



208 



HISTORY OF BERLIN 



GRIST MILLS 

Jos K Wilcox 45 

Lyman Wilcox 45 

Phineas Squires 15 

Moses Riley 15 

Guernsey Bates 30 

CLOTHIERS 

Samuel Norton 12 



Loren Percival 12 

Blakeslee Barnes, (was a 
tinner, no amount at- 
tached to his name.) 



TINNERS 

Jesse Eddy 20 



LIST OF CHAISES AND ASSESSMENTS 



Adam Eittenhouse $15 

E & A Edwards 15 

Amos Hosf ord 20 

Erastus Sage 30 

Erastus Sage 15 

Edmond Boldero 30 

Horace Steel 2 20 

" " 20 

E Brandegee Jr 30 

Elisha Peck 30 

Rojer Riley 20 

Freman Howard 20 

" " 15 

Lyman Latham 15 

" " 15 

Daniel Galpin 20 

David Carpinter 15 

" " 15 

Joseph Both 15 

Caleb Galpin 15 

David Dickinson 40 

Nath'l Dickinson 20 



David Webster $15 

Seth Deming 15 

Lardner Deming 15 

Samuel Porter 20 

Wid Hep Beckley 15 

Shubael Pattison 15 

Eleazur Roberts 15 

Reuben North 15 

Ch'n'cy Shipman 15 

Elisha Cheney 15 

Jacob Willcox 15 

Benjamin Willcox 20 

Samuel Willcox 15 

Josiah Willcox 15 

Lyman Willcox 15 

Solomon Norton 15 

Samuel Whitlesey 15 

Blakeslee Barnes 50 

John Dunham 40 

Daniel Dunbar 20 

Giles Curtise 20 



At a meeting of the Listers of the Town of Berlin, convened at 
Jesse Hart's inn, 13th of Oct, 1817, voted that the persons above 
named be assessed the simis affixed their names 

NOAH W STANLEY 
LEVI WELLES, Jr 
FRANCIS HART 
ASHBEL HOOKER 
WILLIAM STOCKING 
JAMES GUERNSEY 
REUBEN NORTH 



THE EARLY INDUSTRIES OF BERLIN 209 

In 1817 Horace Steele, Elishama Brandegee's next door 
neighbor on the south, was engaged in the business of book- 
binding. Afterwards he made bandboxes, which he carried to 
Hartford to sell to the milliners. 

Mr. Steele's children were Eliza (mother of the Rev. Andrew 
T. Pratt, missionary in Turkey), Caroline (Mrs. Joseph 
Booth), Mary, Jane, Lucy Ann (Mrs. Lorenzo Lamb), and 
William. 

Their home, a large colonial house set well back from the 
street, was, in its day, socially a center of attraction, filled as 
it was with bright, merry young people. The old house was 
torn down by William Steele and the house which he built on 
its site is now owned by Walter Gwatkin. 

In 1801 the Rev. Evan Johns and Mr. Edmund Boldero, 
with their wives, who were sisters, came to America from Eng- 
land. The pulpit of the Second Congregational Church of 
Berlin had been without a settled minister since the death of 
Mr. Goodrich in 1799. Mr. Johns was called to be his suc- 
cessor and was installed June 9, 1802. He was a man of good 
ability, but he had a high temper, so poorly controlled that he 
and his people were kept in turmoil until, to the relief of both, 
he was dismissed February 13, 1811. 

He chose as the text of his last sermon, the words ''The 
Devil is the father of liars, and ye are the children of your 
father." He went on to say, "You are all liars, and the truth 
is not in you." One good brother, in righteous indignation, 
rose in his seat to go up and pitch Mr. Johns out of the pulpit, 
and was hardly restrained from his purpose. Mr. Johns 
desired to preach one more Sunday in order that he might 
finish what he had to say, but he was not allowed to enter the 
pulpit. 

The two English families, Johns and Boldero, lived together, 
in the house lately owned by S. F. Raymond, situated next 
south of the Horace Steele place. Mr. Johns had one son, 
Thomas, who, for fear of contamination, was not allowed to 
go to school, or to play with other children. When Tommy was 
out in his yard, the little boys of the neighborhood would go 
14 



210 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

and peek at him througli the pickets. Then Mrs. Johns would 
appear and say, "Tommy, come away. I do not wish you to 
speak to those children." It was said that as soon as Tommy 
came to his majority he plunged into all manner of dissipation 
and went speedily to "the bad." 

The Bolderos remained after the dismissal of Mr. Johns until 
the death of Mr. Boldero in 1839. Then Mrs. Boldero boarded 
in the family of Charles A. Goodrich until her death in 1842. 

The inscriptions on their tombstones in the East Berlin ceme- 
tery read as follows: 

Edmund Boldero Esq. Youngest son of Eev. John Boldero, late 
rector of Ampton, Suffolk, England. Bom Anno Domini 1767. 
Emigrated to America 1801. Died at Berlin Aug. 3 1839 M 72. 



Eutychia Ann Boldero, Relict of the late Edmund Boldero, Esq. 
and youngest daughter of the late Rev. Thomas Harmer, D.D. Born 
at Hattisfield, Suffolk, England, Sept. 25th, 1760. Died at Berlin 
March 27, 1842, M 81. 

The Bolderos left some property in charge of Mr. Goodrich, 
who turned it into money, and sent it, by the hand of his son 
Samuel, over to England, where he delivered it into the hands 
of the heirs, two interesting old ladies, who lived, if remembered 
rightly, at Bury St. Edmunds. 

There was a mystery about the Bolderos that was buried with 
them. Some said Mr. Boldero had offended the king and that 
he came to America to avoid arrest. They lived a secluded life 
and kept their house locked. Whenever anyone came there, a 
door would be opened a crack, or a chamber window might be 
raised, to inquire what the errand was. The children of that 
generation used to think it great fun on Thanksgiving day 
to dress up and go from house to house making calls. A party 
of them once stopped at the Bolderos and knocked at the door. 
Mrs. Boldero opened a window and asked what they wanted. 
They answered : "It is Thanksgiving day and we have come to 
call upon you." She replied : "Every day, with me, is Thanks- 
giving, and you'd better run right along." 



THE EARLY INDUSTRIES OF BERLIN 211 

When Mr. and Mrs. Boldoro left En<;land thej supposed they 
were coming to a wilderness and thej brought chest upon chest 
of clothing, all made up, sufficient to last a lifetime. Mrs. 
Boldero used to wear to church a pink silk petticoat and a blue 
silk long shawl. After the service they would wait until all 
the congi'egation had gone out, when Mrs. Boldero would say, 
"My dear, I think we may venture now." Then she would lift 
her skirt daintily, take her husband's arm, and step down the 
aisle. They always walked about the yard arm in arm. There 
were two or three young ladies in the village to whom ^Mrs. 
Boldero took a fancy and these favored few were occasionally 
invited to take a cup of tea with her. The Boldero house was 
afterward occupied by Sherlock C. Hall, who about 1852 was 
postmaster. The office was kept in the south front room of the 
dwelling. 

In 1857 Deacon Edward Wilcox sold his property in East 
Berlin to Daniel M. Rogers and purchased the Boldero place, 
where he died in 1862. His wife, who was Harriet ]\I. Dowd, 
died in 1865, and their daughter, Harriet iSTewell, died in 1893. 
Deacon Wilcox and his wife and daughter were all devoted to 
the interests of the church of which they were members, and 
were eminently useful there and in the community at large. 

Deacon S. F. Raymond, who inherited the Wilcox place from 
his cousin Miss Harriet ^N". Wilcox, died January 19, 1905, 
greatly lamented by his many friends. 

The name of Edward Wilcox brings to mind a work in 
which he was greatly interested. In 1857 a manual of the Sec- 
ond Congregational Church of Berlin was published, which 
represented many weeks of patient research and labor by the 
Rev. William DeLoss Love, Deacon Benjamin Savage, Deacon 
Edward Wilcox, and Deacon Alfred North. It is remembered 
that every meeting of that committee was opened by prayer.. 

The book contains, besides thirty-four pages of historical 
memoranda and other matter, a chronological index of every 
member of the church, from its organization in 1775 up to 
1857. Dates of deaths and ages are given and at the end is 
an alphabetical index. 



212 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

Mayor Giles Curtiss, who was a Revolutionary soldier, li^ed 
next south of the Bolderos. He died in 1842, aged eighty-nine. 

The Curtiss house, which stood near the sidewalk, was very 
well built, with fine mouldings about the ceilings. The prop- 
erty was purchased by Samuel C. Wilcox about 1861, and when 
he built his new house back on the hill, the old house was taken 
down by Chauncey Griswold, removed to Meriden and set up 
again, on Britannia Street, where it is still in use as a tenement 
house. 

On what is now the lawn of the Wilcox place, between the 
Curtiss house and the great button ball tree, there was once 
a grocery store kept by a Mr. Latimer. 

The Methodist church, situated directly opposite Horace 
Steele's driveway, was built in 1830. At that time there was 
no building on that side of the way between it and the Brandegee 
store. 

In 1871 the Methodist society bought the Universalist church 
and their own building was sold to Eben Woodruff, who moved 
it down on to his place north of the town hall, to be used as a 
tobacco barn. It is said that the church fell to pieces as the 
first load of tobacco crossed its threshold. 

The house on the corner south of the Methodist church, now 
occupied by Bryan H. Atwater and his sister. Miss Mary 
Atwater, is one of the oldest in Berlin. 

Some years since, when the house was repainted, the date 
1769 was discovered on the brick work of the chimney, about 
half-way between the roof and the top of the chimney. It 
was built to be used as a tavern with a public hall and ballroom 
on the second floor. 

Miss Abby Pattison used to say to her mother, Abigail 
Miller, attended a ball at Fuller's tavern in 1789. It was that 
same year when Washington, on his return by stage from 
Bunker Hill to ITew York, escorted, as recorded in his diary, 
by Major Jackson, Mr. Lear and six servants, "breakfasted at 
Worthington at the house of one Fuller." 

Amos Kirby assumed the proprietorship of Fuller's tavern 
about the year 1814, and lived on the place until his death in 



THE EARLY INDUSTRIES OF BERLIN 213 

1846 at the age of seventy-one. During the latter part of his 
years he carried on the business of a butcher and peddled meat 
about the town. 

A barn formerly stood close to the street north of the Kirby 
house. There was no fence in front of the house or barn. A 
roof extended from this barn over the street and underneath 
were scales for weighing hay. High up under the roof was 
a large wheel with a shaft that extended the width of the build- 
ing. Two great ropes, with strong hooks at the end, were 
wound around the wheel and were connected to a small wheel 
with a crank and windlass in a room at one side, on the ground. 

The carts then in use had but two wheels. They were drawn 
into the building, the ropes were let down, and the hooks were 
caught into the cart wheels. Then by turning the crank of the 
windlass the load was raised to the shaft at the top of the 
building. Two hooks from the scale balance were secured to the 
wheels, then the ropes were thrown off and by movable weights, 
like those used on steelyards, the load was weighed. 

On the corner south of the Kirby house there was formerly a 
building used as a liquor saloon. 

The following letter, written by Mr. Atwater and addressed 
to Mr. F. L. Wilcox, gives further information of interest 
concerning the ancient tavern :* 

December Slst, 1904. 
Hon. F. L. Wilcox: 

Dear Sir : In response to your request I have outlined below a 
few points concerning the Masonic chart which is in my house on 
Berlin street and which may be of interest to you at this time. The 
house, as you know, was built in 1769, and some twenty years ago 
upon removing the paper from the east room upstairs we discovered 
painted upon the plastering of the east side of the room the chart 
referred to. Although not a Mason myself I am told that this shows 
various degrees from the Lodge to the Commandery. Two brazen 
pillars surmounted by the arch and keystone of the chapter are con- 
spicuous in the center, and from the keystone hangs, suspended by 
a ribbon, the letter G, while in the foreground are represented three 
persons clothed in royal robes, one under the center of the arch and 

♦See also The Eartford Courant for June 21, 1914. 



214 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

one at each pillar. Surounding the arch and columns are repre- 
sented numerous Masonic symbols, the Templar star with its nine 
points and passion cross entwined with a serj^ent; cross, pens with 
three crowns representing three kings; the ark and dove, the Jewish 
tabernacle and many others. The wonder is that this chart should 
have been so completely lost to memory these last sixty or seventy 
years. Good authorities suppose it to have belonged to Harmony 
Lodge, No. 20, of New Britain, which formerly held their meetings 
there. This lodge was first located in Berlin under the name of 
Berlin Lodge, No. 20, and was organized in 1791, two years after the 
grand lodge of Connecticut was established. The house was a tavern 
and relay house of the Boston and New York line of stage coaches. 

The room in which is now the chart spoken of was first a part of the 
dance room of the tavern, running across the house from east to 
west. It afterwards changed hands and was converted into the 
Masonic lodge room spoken of and the house with its surroundings 
was known for many years as the Kirby place, which bears an addi- 
tional historic interest as it is mentioned in the diary of George 
Washington which diary is now in the possession of Mr. James F. 
Joy of Detroit, Michigan, and in which he writes under date of 
Tuesday, November 10th, 1789, as follows : 

"Left Hartford about seven o'clock and took the middle 
road (instead of the one through Middletown which I went) 
breakfasted at Worthington, in the township of Berlin, at 
the house of one Fuller, bated at Smith's on the plain of 
Wallingford, thirteen from Fuller's which is the distance 
Fuller's is from Hartford and got into New Haven which is 
thirteen miles more, about half on hour before sundown. At 
this place I met Mr Geary in the stage from New York and 
he gave me the first certain account of the health of Mrs. 
Washington." 

A gentleman of Hartford, prominent in the Order, states that from 
1797 to 1800 the lodge had Dr. James G. Percival for master. He 
was the father of James G. Percival, Jr., the poet, linguist and 
geologist. A more complete description of the early history of 
Harmony Lodge was given by the late Hon. Robert J. Vance in his 
Centennial address, before that order in 1891 and which is shown on 
the records of the above lodge in New Britain. Trusting this 
infonnation will be of interest to you, I remain 

Yours truly, 

Bryan H. Atwater. 



THE EARLY IXDUSTRIES OF BERLIN 2L5 

When Amos Kirby was landlord of the Fuller tavern, he 
and his guests were within easy call of a physician. Dr. Wil- 
liam M. Hand lived across the street, in the house now owned 
by Mrs. B. K. Field. lie had an office in the south yard, near 
the well. This little office building was moved up north, onto 
the Levi Deming farm, and clever, old black Lindy, sister of 
Charles Stocker, lived in it for a time. Afterwards it was 
moved up to Twenty Rod, where it was burned. 

A medical treatise, entitled, ''The House Surgeon and Phy- 
sician," published in 1818, was highly valued in our old 
families. It was always called "Dr. Hand's Book," although 
his name did not appear in it. A much-thumbed copy, for- 
merly owned by Mr. Reuben North, shows that it was well 
studied. One day, Mrs. North had the misfortune, in yawning, 
to dislocate her jaw. She was unable to close her mouth or to 
speak a word, and she was two miles from a physician. She 
found in "Dr. Hand" the directions for treatment in case 
of "Dislocation of the Lower Jaw," which read as follows : 

Set the patient on a low stool, so that an assistant may hold the 
head firm by pressing it against his breast. The operator is then to 
thrust his thumbs (teing first secured by wrapping them in leather 
or linen cloth, so that they may not slip,) as far back into the 
patient's mouth as he can, while his fingers are applied to the jaw 
externally. After he has got finn hold of the jaw, he is to press it 
firmly downward and backwards, by which means the elapsed beads 
of the jaw may be easily pushed into the former sockets. 

Mrs. North carried the book to her husband and pointed to 
the directions, which he followed and made a successful opera- 
tion. A tribute to a discreet wife. Some wives would have 
been allowed to remain speechless — at least until a doctor 
could be called. 

Dr. Hand was succeeded by Dr. Josiah M. Ward. 

William Bulkeley remembers hearing that Dr. Hand, or 
Dr. Ward, he is not sure which,* was called down to Westfield 
to visit a sick person, who lived opposite the church. He 
found his patient so dangerously ill that he decided to remain 

* It appears later that it must have been Dr. Ward. 



216 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

all night. To pass away the time he went out and sat on the 
stone steps of the church, where he took a cold that caused his 
death. 



Dr. Josiah M. Ward and Son. 

One of the first names placed on the list prepared of those 
to be invited to Berlin's Old Home Day celebration, last Sep- 
tember, was that of Alexander M. Ward, son of the faithful 
family physician, Josiah M. Ward. 

Your correspondent* had the pleasure last week of a morn- 
ing's visit with Mr. Ward, at his home in ISTew Haven. 

So far as known, Mr. Ward has the distinction of being the 
next oldest living person born in Berlin. He will celebrate 
his ninetieth birthday next year (1907), and the doctor tells 
him that he is good for a hundred. 

Mr. Ward is in possession of all his faculties and in a race 
would distance most men twenty years his junior. He said 
I might tell you that, with the exception of a little rheumatism 
in one arm and shoulder, he had not felt a pain or an ache for 
thirteen years. He attributes the good time he is now having 
to an experience of his boyhood. He was sick and it was feared 
that he was going into consumption. 

Captain ISTorman Peck, who was a brother of Mrs. Ward, 
used to carry cargoes of American goods to Scotland, and then 
on his return he would bring a load of Scotchmen over to this 
country. One day when he called to say "Good bye" to his 
sister, he saw young Alexander, as he lay in his mother's bed. 
The captain said: "Give me that boy and I will cure him. I 
will take him to Scotland and bring him home well." 

The mother gave her consent, and asked w^hat clothing she 
should provide — he had not a stitch of wool about him unless 
it might be a pair of trousers. His uncle said, "Do not get 
anything, I will see that he has an outfit when we reach New 
York." And so his mother wrapped a great camlet cloak 
with a cape about her child, and off he was carried in that rig. 

* That is, Miss North. 



THE EARLY INDUSTRIES OF BERLIN 217 

The first night in New York the boy was piit onto the ship, 
where sloops, filled with rocks, were coming alongside. The 
rocks were for ballast, and were thrown on deck. Alexander, 
just out of his mother's bed, was set to throwing them down 
into the hold. The next he knew they had weighed anchor, 
and were off for Charleston, where they were to take on a cargo 
of cotton. He said, "Where are my clothes?" "I declare," 
said the captain, "I forgot all about them. Well, we'll get 
some in Scotland." One of the seamen gave him a vest, that 
came well down over his body, and finally another gave him 
a woolen jumper, so that he was made fairly comfortable. 

At Charleston, the vessel was ladened to its fullest capacity 
with bales of cotton. One bale was left out in a certain spot 
to make a place where Alec and another boy could sleep, but 
there was not room for both there at the same time, unless 
they lay spoon fashion. 

On the return voyage, as the vessel neared New York harbor, 
and the city was in full view, Alexander said to himself, "I 
have not done a single smart thing that I can tell the boys at 
home about. At that moment his eye caught sight of his 
country's flag floating from the royal mast. The very thing! 
Up aloft he climbed, shinned the flag pole, sat on the truck 
and folded his arms, the ship under full sail. He said, ''It 
makes me shiver to-day to think of it." 

Can you see the rugged sailor boy, who, a few da^'s later, 
skipped up the bank, across the way from Kirby's tavern, 
clasped his arms around the neck of Mrs. Ward and called her 
"mother?" No camlet cloak for him now! He tipped the 
scales at a hundred and sixty-five. What life more noble, more 
self-sacrificing than that of a country doctor? He, his wife 
and his children hold a place in the hearts of the people, 
equaled only by that of a faithful minister and his family. 
It would be a pity should the names and good deeds of our 
Berlin physicians be forgotten. 

In 1825, the spotted fever, which for several years was 
prevalent in New England, raged in Berlin so that it came 
to be called "the Berlin fever." One storv was that the disease 



218 HISTORY OF BEELIN^ 

was brought from the South, by one of the young men who 
had been there peddling goods. The day after his return he 
played a game of ball with the Berlin boys, and the next day 
he was dead of the fever. Others said it was caused by the 
clogging of Spruce Brook. At that time Mr. Josiah Wilcox, 
who for many years manufactured tinners' tools at l^orth 
Greenwich, Conn., was an apprentice with J. & E. ISTorth at 
East Berlin. Shortly before his death, in 1883, he passed over 
Stoney Swamp road, on his way to East Berlin, and noticed 
that the meadows were overflowed. He said, "If your people 
do not clean out the bed of that stream, you will have sickness 
here," and then he went on to tell of that fearful typhus 
epidemic, which he said was caused by stagnant water on those 
flats. 

Dr. Josiah M. Ward was then in his prime, and he had sixty 
cases of the typhoid on his hands. Day and night he rode 
and visited his patients until he was so exhausted that he would 
sleep anywhere, even on horseback. Parson Graves and his 
family in Westfield were all down with the fever, and it was 
while in attendance there that Dr. Ward fell asleep on the steps 
of the church opposite the house. He awoke in a chill — the 
precursor of the fever, from which in his worn condition he 
could not rally. He died August 25, 1823, at the age of forty- 
three. Mrs. Ward and three of their children took the fever. 
One morning the clock struck eight and the children did not 
come down to breakfast. Diadema, a half sister, went to the 
chamber and said, "It is late, you must get up." She lifted 
the little Samuel, four years old, and carried him down the 
stairs, in her arms. On the way he spat on the floor, and 
Diadema reproved him. The children were never allowed to do 
such a thing as that in the house. 

In was the beginning of the sickness. In twenty-four hours 
the child was dead. Mary was sick two days and died. Laura's 
fever ran two or three weeks and she recovered. The mother 
was restored to health after a second attack of the disease. 

During the epidemic many heads of families were stricken. 
Among the victims were Blakeslee Barnes, the first Mrs. Free- 



THE EARLY INDUSTRIES OF BERLIN 219 

dom Hart, and the wife of Colonel Richard Wilcox. The 
patients would call for "water, water!" but not a drop was 
allowed them. 

William Bulkeley remembers hearing that the "Street" was 
strewed with tan bark in order to deaden the sound of the wagon 
wheels, and that the hearse was not put up in its place at all 
so steady was it in use. 

Mr. Ward said that when his father knew that he could not 
live he called his wife to sit beside him and gave her directions 
about their business affairs. 

It was not customary in the schools of Mrs. Ward's genera- 
tion to teach arithmetic to the girls. Dr. Ward advised her to 
go to some good arithmetician and learn to keep accounts. 
Diadema Ward attended school in Hartford and taught there 
out on the hill. She learned to paint in oils, and had classes 
in painting. 

In August, 1830, Louis Daguerre first made known the 
details of the process discovered by him of producing permanent 
pictures by the action of light on a sensitive surface. !Morse, 
the American electrician, discoverer of the magnetic telegraph, 
was also an artist. While abroad he heard of Daguerre's inven- 
tion, visitod him, and learned the process, which on his return 
to jSTew York, he imparted to a class of young men. Diadema 
Ward read accounts, in the ISTew York papers, of the interest 
excited in the new, lovely, soft pictures. She wrote to her 
brother Alexander about it and said she thought the business 
might be a good one for him. He took her advice, went to 
New York, saw Mr. Morse, joined that class and was one of 
the first six in America who learned to take daguerrotypes. 
He ordered a machine, brought it to Berlin, set it up at home 
in the south chamber over the kitchen and practiced on his 
mother. She did not like to sit for him and would make up 
faces, but he still has a fine likeness of her, made at that time. 
William Sage made cases for the pictures. 

Mr. Ward had an uncle, who lived in i!^ewburg, N. Y. This 
uncle wrote to him that no one there had seen the new juctures, 
and if he would come there he would have all the business he 



220 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

could attend to. Accordingly he went to ISTewburg where he 
was rushed with work. His plates, made in Waterbury, were 
heavy and not very sensitive. He spoiled so many that he had 
to sit up all night scouring and cleaning them. After a while 
he returned to Berlin and hired a room for a studio in the house 
north of the old church. He took one picture there for which 
he received five dollars. 

For success, it was necessary to sit perfectly still for five 
minutes, at least it seemed five minutes, without as much as 
winking. The head was secured by an instrument resembling 
a pair of tongs, and children were scared almost to death when 
placed in the chair. Even their parents wore an expression so 
serious, so funereal as to seem ludicrous to this generation. 
Materials were costly and Mr. Ward found that his receipts 
were not sufiicient to cover expenses. In 1844 he went to the 
West Indies. There in Barbadoes he sold his machine. He 
said he showed the purchaser how to use it, but never heard 
what success he had. 

Mr. Ward had much interesting information to give relating 
to the days of his boyhood. 

The wife of Landlord Kirby was an Atwood. She was well 
educated and was a violinist. She used to play for all the 
dances at her hotel. 

Allen North, who lived on the Jarvis corner, used to come 
out every summer night, after his work was done, and sit on 
the bank and play his violin. The boy Alexander would go 
out to listen and he said he thought it was lovely music. Mrs. 
Ward sold the doctor's office for just what it cost to build an 
arbor over the well, that was in it. 

The Bolderos made a friend of young Alexander and 
employed him to bring in wood, etc. Mr. Boldero always kept 
a supply of half cents on hand so that he might make exact 
change. Mr. Ward said he often cited Mrs. Boldero to the 
young ladies of his acquaintance, as an example of the proper 
way of lifting a dress skirt. He said when they had to cross 
a muddy street, they would catch up one side, and let the other 
side drag in the dirt. When Mrs. Boldero started for church 



THE EARLY INDUSTRIES OF BERLIN" 221 

she laid ono band in her husband's arm ; with the other she 
reached back to the center of her skirt and gave it a little 
twist; then she would lift it in such a way that it escaped the 
ground entirely. That was London style. 

When Mr. Boldero died, a worthy neighbor, who had lived 
within a stone's throw nigh on to forty years, ventured to attend 
the funeral. Mrs. Boldero noticed her, and said, "Who is 
that woman?" When told, she said, ''I do not know her; it 
annoys me to have her here." 

Mr. Ward remembers the flourishing debating society formed 
in connection with Worthington Academy. He spoke especially 
of Edward Dunbar, born in Berlin, a son of Esquire Daniel 
Dunbar, who lived in the house now owned by Mrs. Hopkins. 
Edward Dunbar showed his intellect by his powerful arguments 
in the meetings of that debating club. He went to Xew York, 
where he became a bank note engraver, then he published a 
commercial paper, and was the originator of Bradstreet's Com- 
mercial Eating Agency. 



In 1802, Abel Hollister, George Hubbard, Jesse Heart, and 
Leonard Sage were appointed a committee to "Sell the Brick 
School House and Land adjoining Belonging to ye old South 
west District, in Berlin, Worthington." 

A deed, dated June 10, 1802, shows that the said committee, 
for the consideration of two hundred dollars, conveyed the 
property to Jonathan Sage. Roger Riley and Elisha Cheney 
witnessed the deed. This schoolhouse stood close on the corner, 
south of the Dr. Hand place, on property now owned by C. M. 
Jarvis. The building was fitted up for a tenement. 

Miss Julia Brandegee remembers that once upon a time a 
woman lived there who had a daughter called "Crazy Lois," 
and that the children used to take a bee line from the south 
school to see "Crazy Lois," who would come to the door and 
scare and chase them. 

Another well-remembered tenant was Trout Wright, who 
was a typical, old time, bloated drunkard, and his wife was 



222 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

a good second, but she was industrious and earned a living by 
going out washing at fifty cents a day. She used to carry a 
bottle of "tea" in her bag, to keep up her strength. Trout 
gained his nickname in this way : He was fond of fishing, and 
one day when he had caught a fine trout, he was heard to say, 
"Trout, you are Captain Trout's trout now." He used to say 
that a pint of rum would go farther in his family than a dollar's 
worth of flour. 

The couple were clever and peaceful when sober, but they 
quarrelled with each other when they were having sprees. He 
would get her down and beat her until he was tired. Then he 
would wait and say "Enough! 'nough! say 'nough and I'll 
stop !" If she refused to speak he would go on beating her 
again until she cried "Enough." 

At these times the boys delighted to tease them by such tricks 
as throwing dead kittens in at the window. They would retali- 
ate by throwing hot water at the boys, and Trout would rush 
out brandishing an axe, with threats to kill them. They were 
not at all afraid of him he was so weak and tottlish. 

Poor Trout ! At last he had delirium tremens. He was seen 
in the Brandegee orchard trying to run up the trees to escape 
the devil, who he said was after him. He went over to East 
Berlin to get away from his tormentor. It was a Sunday. He 
went into the factory of F. Roys and B. Savage to hide, and 
squeezed himself back of a boiler where, after church, he was 
discovered by his screams. Mr. Roys pulled him out and told 
him to go home, get into a feather bed, and nothing would hurt 
him. 

The old schoolhouse was used at one time by the father of 
Philip North as a stoncutter's shop,* and when, about twenty- 
five years ago, John Thompson built the house that Mr. Jarvis 
recently moved farther west, he pulled the building down. 

Mr. William Sage and his family lived in the Dr. Ward place 
quite a number of years. Miss Hattie Sage says she is sure 
that her mother told her that Mr. Johns built the house. Mrs. 
Johns fell down the chamber stairs and was so severely injured 
that she died. Her inscription on her tombstone in the East 
Berlin cemetery reads as follows : 

* See pp. 223-224. 



THE EARLY INDUSTRIES OF BERLIN 223 

JOHNS In memory of Sophia, second daughter of the Ilev'd 
Thomas Harmer, author of Observations on divers passages of 
Scripture, illustrating them by travels in the East, and wife of Kev'd 
Evans Johns, minister of this parish. She landed at New York on 
the 12th of May 1801 and died in consequence of a fatal fall on the 
28th of August 1808. 

When Miss Sage was a little girl she lost a kitten under the 
attic roof and in her efforts to rescue it, she drew out a diary, 
dated Hartford, January 1, 1811. It was the journal of a 
school boy and was ended January 13. The name ''Johns" 
is on the cover, but the first name is obliterated. It is supposed 
to have been written by Thomas Johns. The language is good 
for a boy, and shows that his speech had not been corrupted by 
association with country school children. 

He speaks often of Dr. Bacon, with whom he evidently 
boarded, and of watering, feeding, and riding the doctor's 
horse. A few extracts from the journal may be of interest: 

Jan 1st Was made to stay some time after school 
Jan 2nd Walked about the streets and looked at some boys 
Jan 3rd Bought a roll of candy .... went to school and 
had a scuflBe .... read Don Quixote 

Jan 4th In came Father, so I walked about a mile and had a chat 
with him .... ate my supper .... read a little in Don 
Quixote .... then wrote my Journal .... then cut some 
bread and cheese after the Doctor came home and I talked with him 
first on diet and then on the difference between English and Latin 
grammar 

Saturday Jan 5th Got up into the Dove-House .... went 
and rode on sleds .... rode back and forth in the streets all 
the afternoon .... threw snow at the boys .... read a 
chapter in the Bible, then attended prayers 

Jan 7th Studied a lesson in Virgil which we construed and passed 
Jan 8th School being done I came home got three apples and 
ate them 

Saturday Jan 12th Went to school .... in the afternoon 
took some recreation .... slid down hill with the boys 

Sunday Jan 13th Got up this morning late .... went to 
meeting twice then spent the night in study Amen and Amen 

Mr. Bulkeley says that Allen North, the father of Philip 
North, lived in the old comer, near the south schoolhouse, but 



224 HISTORY OF BEKLIN 

that he was not a stonecutter, it was Almeron Bacon who had a 
marble yard at that place. 

The mention of Crazy Lois brought to mind other stories 
about her. When the school children passed her house she 
used to go to the front door and say, "Pretty little children, 
pretty little children!" Then, as she clasped her hands and 
they scampered away, she would repeat, "See the little birds 
fly, see the little birds fly." 

Miss Julia Roys, who formerly lived in East Berlin, remem- 
bers that when a little girl she came up to visit Harriet Bulkeley, 
and that she was taken to see Lois as one of the sights of the 
village. They looked in at the door of a room, where Lois 
was in bed, with a large pitcher filled with clover blossoms and 
daisies near her side. 

After the mother died there was no one to care for Lois, and 
she was taken to the town farm. Toward the end of her life 
she had a severe illness. Her reason, that had been shattered 
in youth, was now perfectly restored, but all the years from 
childhood to old age were a blank. Dr. Brandegee attended her 
in that sickness, and one day he noticed that she looked intently 
at her hands. When he asked her what was the matter with 
them, she replied, "Why, they look like an old woman's hands." 



Going on south from the Maple Cemetery we come to the 
Sage farm. There was once a cigar factory in the south part 
of the house belonging to this estate. Across the road in the 
apple orchard the Burt brothers manufactured percussion caps, 
but the industry came to a sudden end one day in an explosion 
which damaged the premises and killed one boy, the son of 
Philip ISTorth. This factory is still a portion of Atwater's cider 
mill. 

At a town meeting held April 10, 1796, it was voted "that 
the Selectmen of Berlin lay out the proposed road a little north 
of Capt. David Sage's dwelling house, westerly to the road near 
where Israel Fuller now lives." 



THE EARLY INDUSTRIES OF BERLIN 225 

Follow this road a sbort distance and on the north side you 
will come to a house now owned by the florist and carpenter 
A. A. Welden. This place was for many years the home of the 
Piper family. Luther Piper, Sr., and his son Luther, were 
coopers. Besides making large quantities of barrels for cement 
manufactured by the Moores, of Kensington, they supplied all 
the community with hogsheads, water barrels and cider barrels, 
barrels for pounding clothes, pork and soap barrels. 

Speaking of soap brings to mind an industry once practiced 
by every family, of which the following description has been 
given by an old lady: "Ashes, bones, and refuse fat were 
carefully hoarded through the year. In the spring a large 
hogshead, set on a low platform, was filled with ashes, over 
which water was poured. The lye thus formed was collected 
in pails from holes bored through the lower part of the hogs- 
head. A large iron or brass kettle was filled with the soap 
grease, and set over a fire, sometimes kindled in the yard. The 
strong lye was poured into the kettle and the whole mass was 
boiled until the soap 'came,' which was known when it 'spun 
aprons' from a stick lifted from the kettle." One family in 
town, noted for slackness, threw away all their ashes until 
spring came and the soap barrel was empty. Then they burned 
all the wood they could pile on the fireplace, day and night, 
for the sake of the ashes. 

That this industry was not so innocent as may appear, is 
shown by the records of burial in the Beckley Quarter Ceme- 
tery, one of which reads as follows : 

In memory of Sally North, daughter of Joseph and Rhoda North, 
who died July 16, 1818 se 27 Killed instantly by the fall of a 
hogshead of ashes. 

Hot soap was no mean weapon in the hands of a woman. 

Miss Fannie Robbins tells a story of her grandmother who, 
when she was twelve years old, was left at home alone one day 
to keep the house and to watch a kettle of soap that was boiling 
over a fire in the back yard. On the table in the kitchen was a 
baking of bread just out of the brick oven. A company of men, 
15 



226 HISTOKY OF BERLIN 

straggling along the road, stopped and went prowling about the 
premises. Miss Bobbins thinks she was told that they were 
Indians, but her sister thought they were British soldiers. 
Whichever they were, one of the men stepped into the kitchen 
and helped himself to a loaf of bread ; then another followed 
and took a loaf ; as a third started forward, the brave girl, with 
her heart in her mouth, spoke up, and said, "My mistress will 
not like it to have you take her bread, she wants it for her chil- 
dren, and if you take another loaf I will throw a piggin of hot 
soap on you." And off they went. (A piggin was a wooden 
pail with one stave left higher than the rest for a handle.) 



Mr. George H. Sage has kindly given the following account 
of his ancestral home and its occupants : 

Berlin, Conn., Jan. 29th, 1906. 

My dear Miss North: It is a pleasure to reply to your request 
for a history of our farm house. The Sage house was built about 
the year 1720 by Captain David Sage, (son of John and grandson 
of David who settled in Middletown in 1652,) who, with his twin 
brother Benjamin, came to Berlin from Middletown. It might be 
well to add here that Benjamin's house built at the same time, stood 
below David's and just south of the Clark place. Benjamin Sage 
married Mary Allen of Berlin, and died in 1734; bis house has long 
since disappeared. 

Captain David married Batbsheba Judd of Berlin and they had 
four sons and four daughters. One son. Deacon Jedediab, married 
Sarah Marey of Berlin and remained on the present Sage farm. 
Another son, Zadoch, lived almost directly across the road from 
Benjamin, and the old well is now near the site of the house, a few 
rods north of where the brick schoolbouse stood. As time went by 
the Sage house was filled with the deacon's four sons and three 
daughters, so Captain David moved into the house built by his 
brother Benjamin and was ninety-three years old when the road 
was built west toward Mr. Welden's. I believe Jedediab was deacon 
of the Second Congregational church for twenty-seven years. He 
died in 1826 aged eighty-nine years. 

Colonel Erastus, his son, married Elinor Dickenson of Berlin and 
succeeded to the farm where ten children were born to them, my 



THE EAELY INDUSTRIES OF BERLIN 227 

father, Henry, being the one who stayed at home. I have my grand- 
father's papers among which is his appointment by the General 
Assembly to be Colonel of the 4th Regiment of cavalry in the militia 
and signed by Oliver Wolcott Esq., as governor, and dated the 31st 
day of May 1819. 

The property has been in the family about 186 years, and for five 
generations. The house has been added to from time to time, but 
the original has been well preserved with its huge stone chimney, 
four fireplaces, brick ovens, and the hewn white oak timbers forming 
the framework are as solid today as when they were raised almost 
two hundred years ago. Yours sincerely, 

Geo. H. Sage. 



It will be remembered that, when a few years since Mr. 
George H. Sage purchased the property on which he built his 
new house, there stood on the lot, close to the street, embowered 
in lilac bushes, a large, old, dilapidated, brown house. Zenas 
Richardson and Vashti Norton were married in 1807 and that 
house was their home. Zenas was a shoemaker and in his 
business he employed quite a number of apprentices. 

The Richardsons lost a little son in 1810. His inscription 
reads thus : 

In memory of Orenzo, Son of Zenas & Vashti Richardson who died 
April 6th 1810 aged 8 days. 

In the morning it looked promising, 
In the evening it lay withering. 

Queer names ! Other sons who came to the Richardsons were 
Andrew, Darius, and Xelson. 

Zebulun Richardson lived in this neighborhood ; was he the 
father of Zenas ? 

When the Hartford and New Haven turnpike was laid out 
in 1800 the town voted to make the road four rods wide in 
front of Zebulun Richardson's by taking one rod off from his 
front yard. 

The jSTortons were largo landholders and Vashti inherited 
from her father, Andrew iSTorton, a piece of ground that 



228 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

extended across the east side of the old part of the south ceme- 
tery which adjoined her house lot. 

As we retrace our steps southward let us learn more about 
the old places. When Zenas Richardson gave up shoemaking, 
his shop on the Geo. H. Sage place was used for the manufac- 
ture of tinware. If we stop at William Moore's, opposite the 
old Atwood place, now Bert Hart's, and dig into his bank we 
shall turn out quantities of tin chips. Mr. Moore's house was 
once a tinshop conducted by Fred Squires. Mr. Squires went 
to Rhode Island, before 1835, and the story is that he was one 
of the leaders there in Governor Dorr's rebellion. 

Russell Clark came to Berlin in 1828 and purchased the 
farm south of the Sage homestead. His children were: Hope 
S., John, Luther, Sarah C, and Rozilla. Hope was a pupil 
at Worthington Academy, when Mr. Parish was principal. At 
the age of seventeen she taught the south district school. Her 
sister Sarah, twelve years old, attended the school and was 
made to mind. Hope was married when eighteen and went to 
'New York to live. She married, second, the Rev. S. H. Beale. 
They live at Camden, Me. Mr. Beale is ninety years old. 

Sarah C. Clark was married to the Rev. Kathan Coleman. 
During the Civil War they taught at the south — at iSTorfolk, 
Va., in 1864, and near Petersburg in 1865. Mr. Coleman 
taught at one time in the Worthington Academy. He was an 
enthusiastic naturalist and never tired of talking with his pupils 
about flowers and insects, of which he made an extensive col- 
lection. Mrs. Coleman lives with her sister, Mrs. Beale, in 
Maine. Russell Clark died January 14, 1855, aged sixty-three 
years. His inscription reads : ''Help Lord for the godly man 
ceaseth, for the faithful fail from among the children of men." 

Elbert J. Clark was not a son of Russell. He came from 
Westfield, married Rozilla Clark, and succeeded her father in 
charge of the farm. He died December 3, 188Y, aged seventy- 
eight, and the property is now owned by Charles M. Jarvis. 

At a meeting of the inhabitants of the Town of Berlin held 
April 22, 1805, liberty was granted the southwest district in 



THE EARLY INDUSTRIES OF BERLIN 



229 



Worthinfrtoii to erect a sclioolliouse on the old road a little 
south of Zadoc Sage's dwelling house, near a stake set for said 
house, and the selectmen were ''impowered" to set off a suit- 
able yard to accommodate said schoolhouse. 

This sit« was on the east side of the way, just north of the 
little stream that crosses the road where the horses love to drink. 
It is not known how the children had been accommodated sinco 
the sale of their brick schoolhouse on the Jarvis corner, in 1802. 
The new schoolhouse was a frame building. Some time 
about 1S35 it was sold to Luther Piper, who moved it over to 
his place and used it for a cooper's shop. It was replaced by 
a brick building which was burned about fifteen years ago. 

At that same town meeting of April 22, 1805, the selectmen 
were ^'Impowered" to dispose of the old road leading by Esq. 
Hosford's, beginning a little south of Zadoc Sage's, near the 
stake set to build a 'schoolhouse. This old road extended to a 
road that ran easterly and westerly by Mr. Edwards' bariL 

Mr. E. I. Clark says that when Mr. Henry Sage had charge 
of the town roads, he used to tell him about a road that once 
ran across the lots back of Deacon Hosford's and came out a 
few rods east of Mr. Clark's house. Its course could be traced 
at that time. On the corner next south of the schoolhouse lived 
Samuel Bishop, who was a house painter. There were many 
large old cherry trees in his yard and people from far and near 
used to go to gather fruit from those trees. Mr. Bishop died m 
1856, aged ninety-one. The old house was torn down long 
since, and the new schoolhouse stands on the place. 

Samuel Bishop, Jr., lived on the corner opposite his father 
and made shoes, which he sold in New York. He employed 
ten or twelve workmen, and in winter carried the shoes to 
market in his sleigh. Mr. E. I. Clark says that one morning 
when the sleighing was particularly fine, Mr. Bishop started 
early with his load, and drove the entire distance, reaching New 
York at evening of the same day. 

On the same side of the highway, farther south, we come to 
the house once owned by Walter Edwards, the father of ^hss 



230 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

Martha Edwards, a well-known visitor in town. Mr. Edwards 
kept a dozen young men busy in his shoe factory at that place. 
The propert}'' is now owned by Henry Hollister. 

Jedediah ISTorton, grandfather of the late Henry Norton and 
of his brother Philip JSTorton, came to Berlin from Wallingford. 
He married in 1764 Achsah Norton, sister of Tabitha, heroine 
of "The Stolen Bride." 

Going toward Meriden, the road beyond the Walter Edwards 
place divides for a distance of about three-quarters of a mile. 
Keep to the right of the little cemetery in the triangle, on past 
the house built by Deacon Edward C. Hall, and just before 
the ways unite we come to the Henry Norton farm. This was 
the home of Jedediah Norton and Achsah, his wife. They began 
their married life in a small house a little south of the present 
fine, large residence, the ell part of which, it is believed, was 
built by Jedediah.* It was said that while on a visit to some 
city, Mr. Norton heard an organ, which so delighted him that 
he determined to have one in his own church at Berlin. 

At a meeting of the Worthington Church, held November 1, 
1791, it was 

Voted that the thanks of this society be given to our friend Mr. 
Jedediah Norton for so distinguished a mark of his good will in 
giving us an elegant organ and erecting it in the meeting house at 
his own expense, and we do hereby appoint Solomon Dunham and 
Amos Hosford, a committee in behalf of this society to present this 
our ihanks to said Mr. Norton, and liberty is hereby granted to the 
prudential committee to affix the said organ in the front gallery of 
our meeting house. 

The dedication of the organ was announced in the Hartford 
Courant thus : 

OKGAN. 

The public are hereby notified that Mr. Josiah Leavitt of Boston, 
organ builder hath lately been employed to construct an ORGAN 
for Worthington parish, which is completed and set up in the Meet- 
ing-house. The Organ will be opened by said Leavitt on Thursday 

* Cf. next page. 



THE EARLY INDUSTUTES OF BERLIN 231 

the 8th of November instant, at which time a sermon will be preached 
on the occasion, and Music will be performed. 

After the exercises there will be a collection for the benefit of said 
builder. 

lEjgT" The exercise will begin at 1 o'clock P. M. 

Worth ing^ton, Nov. 1, 17M2. 

Mr. ISTorton did not lonp^ enjoy the sweet music of his f^ift. 
Ho died in 1794, ai^ed eig;hty-two. Unfortunately the ''front 
gallery" proved to be in that part of the meeting house which 
was destroyed by fire in 1848, and the organ was ruined beyond 
repair. 

Directly east of the !Nortons, across the point made by the 
coming together of the two roads, lived Abraham Wright, Revo- 
lutionary soldier and tavern keeper. According to ]\Ir. George 
Sage his house was opened to the public for four years from 
1797, and again for two years from 1814. Mr. Wright died 
in 1825, aged eighty-seven. 

The main part of the largo Xorton house was built by the 
late Henry Norton after his marriage, May 22, 1825. The ell 
of the house was built — not by Jedediah Norton — but by his 
son Samuel. In the orchard opposite this house there was once 
a tin-shop. 

Jonathan Edwards, who lived on the road which was closed, 
over west of the Edward Hall place, had a son, Joseph, who 
settled on a farm in Meriden. Joseph had a pretty daughter, 
Phebe, who was married to Samuel jSTorton, June 22, 1789. 
They had ten children. He used to say that it was as easy to 
save money and get rich with ten children as with only one. 

When he was courting his wife he told her she need never 
put her hands into hot water, or do any work, that he had money 
enough to hire help. One day afterwards, when surrounded 
by her little family, she reminded him of what ho had said 
about putting her hands into hot water. In his droll way he 
answered : ''Well, you need not do it, you can cool the water." 

Her granddaughters remember that in her old age her hands 
were as soft and white as those of a child. She boasted that in 
all her married life she had never once been obliged to lift the 



232 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

dinner pot from the crane — some one was always ready to do 
it for her. One of those old iron kettles filled with pot luck 
for such a household as hers was no light weight. 

Samuel J^orton was a Revolutionary soldier. He died Octo- 
ber 27, 1832, aged seventy-three. Phebe, his wife, died August 
13, 1854, aged eighty-four. 

George Norton, son of Samuel and Phebe, died in 1829, at 
the age of twenty, while a student at the Vermont Academy of 
Medicine. 

Josiah ]N"orton, son of Jedediah and Achsah Norton, was a 
graduate of Yale, class of 1768. He went to Vermont, where 
he had a large family which was located in Castleton and its 
vicinity. Old deeds and memoranda in the family show that 
they were interested in a township in Vermont named Norton, 
which may have attracted him there for settlement. His 
mother, Achsah Norton, after the death of her husband, Jede- 
diah Norton, in 1794, went to Vermont. Her gravestone at 
Castleton bears this inscription : 

Erected to the memory of the widow Achsah Norton, who died 
Aug. 8th, 1805, aged 84 years. 

Fourscore revolving suns had past, 

When Christ, my Saviour, called me home at last. 



CHAPTER XI. 

Trout Streams of Berlin. — The Peach Orchard. 

Over northwest of Belcher's tavern springs a stream of water 
called Belcher's brook. This stream runs northerly, nearly 
parallel with the "Old road," into Old Fly ami out again — 
farther north winding' about a little, so that the railroad crosses 
it twice; thence onward — always in sight of the dwelling 
houses — across Norton Street, west of Lower Lane, on through 
the pasture where Aunt Abby Pattison's cows used to drink, 
and where the herons stand on one leg, in meditation, wonder- 
ing where Aunt Abby and her house and her cows have gone. 
Still onward the stream runs to a point west, and midward, 
of the Lower Lane extension, where it takes a turn about, and 
goes south a little way as if to take a parting look at itself; 
then it winds toward the north again; turns eastward, runs 
under the "South bridge," and about four hundred feot farther, 
into the lot recently sold by Francis Doming. Here the big 
Mattabessett, just in from under the "Xorth bridge," makes 
a swoop southerly, opens its mouth, and takes in the little 
Belcher brook, at the finish of its four-mile race. 

The springs from which Blue Hills brook has it-s source in 
Kensington are on the Xorris Peck farm now owned by his son, 
Langdon J. Peck. 

Running north, this stream crosses the road, east of Blue 
Hills schoolhouse comer. Dr. Brandegee, when driving over 
this road, used always to let his horse stop and drink. He said 
horses would drink there, whether they were thirsty or not, the 
water was so sweet. 

East of the stream, on the north side of that road, was once a 
large white house, for many years the dwelling of Deacon Asaph 
Smith and his wife, who was known familiarly as "Aunt Abby 
Smith." On account of some dissatisfaction at home they used 
to come over this side to church. The white-topped carriage, 



234 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

in which they drove on Sundays, is still remembered. That 
was back in the forties. After the death of her husband in 
1865, Mrs. Smith purchased the house on Berlin Street now 
owned by Mrs. Wm. B. Pierce. 

By economy she accumulated a considerable property, which 
caused her much anxious thought, as to its disposition. She 
made so many wills that she learned to draw her own. Once 
she bequeathed several hundred dollars to the Worthington 
Ecclesiastical Society, but when she detected what she con- 
sidered a growing tendency to extravagance in dress of the 
church members and in the conduct of church affairs she revoked 
that bequest. She used to say that she never in all her life 
had a dress that cost over fifty cents a yard. She kept her 
place as neat as a pin, by the labor of her own hands. The 
village school children were greatly amused when they saw her, 
seated in a rocking chair, painting her front fence. 

Blue Hills brook keeps on its way, northeasterly, through 
Kensington, until near the home of the Misses Bauer; there 
it turns due east, crosses the road, bounds the north side of 
a pasture owned by heirs of the late James B. Reed, and joins 
Belcher brook at a point about four hundred feet southwesterly 
from the Lower Lane bridges. 

Any boy within a radius of a mile wiH direct you to the 
famous ''Swimming hole" a short distance away, in the Matta- 
bessett. You will see the boy, a dozen of him, the first hot day 
next summer, on his way there, with a towel, and perchance a 
piece of soap, bulging his pocket, and you may hear his screams 
of laughter, as you pass along the road by the Bridge Cemetery. 

A short distance east of the springs, at the head of Blue Hills 
brook, on the same Norris Peck farm, are other springs — the 
source of a third stream, called ''Crooked Brook." This stream 
goes northeasterly through Kensington and crosses the Parish 
line south of "]Srorton's Pond" so called, where it furnished 
power for the saw mill that was burned in the fall of 1905. 
Thence the current is swift, eastward, to a point back of the 
Samuel Durand farm, now owned by Huber Bushnell. There 
it joins Belcher brook. 



TROUT STREAMS OF BERLIN 235 

In Mr. Thomas's lot on a few rods farther north is a ])ool 
called '^Silver Hole," where the children love to bathe in 
summer time. Many years ago this pool was a favorite n^ort 
of Sylvia J^orton, and it was named for her, "Sylvia Hole." 

The water of Crooked brook, like that of Blue Hills brook, 
is singularly pure and sweet. There is nothing finer in this 
part of the country. Its fall is rapid, and it would seem tx) be 
a simple question of mechanical engineering to bring that water 
to Worthington Street. 

Section 2527 of the Connecticut statutes, 1884, reads as 
follows : 

The sum of three thousand dollars is hereby appropriated for the 
artificial propagation of fish in the waters of this State. 

The Legislature of 1905 appropriated, for the two years 
ending September 30, 1907, eight thousand dollars, for propaga- 
tion of game and fish, with the additional sum of three thousand 
dollars for care and repair of state fish hatcheries, and all 
property of the state connected with the propagation of fish. 
Any one wishing to stock a brook or a pond with fish can obtain 
the young fry by application to the State Fish Commissioner. 

Blue Hills brook and Crooked brook are natural trout 
streams, but the stock is kept up and improved by yearly addi- 
tions of young trout from the state hatcheries. 

The Indians could catch fish Sunday or any other day of the 
week, wherever they pleased, but we have not that privilege, 
and a breakfast of trout, caught from one of these streams, 
might prove an expensive luxury. 

Section one of Chapter 199 of the public acts of 1903, as 
amended by Legislature May 20, 1905, reads as follows : 

Every person who shall throw down or leave open any bars, gate, 
or fence upon the land of another without permission of the ownier, 
occupant, or person in charge thereof for the purpose of Iniuting, 
trapping, fishing, or taking or destroying the nests or eggs of birds, 
or bee hunting, or gathering nuts, fruits, or berries .... shall 
be fined not more than fifty dollars or imprisone<l not more tlian 
thirty days, or both. 



236 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

The possession by any person while trespassing upon the land of 
another, of a gun, dog, ferret, or fish rod shall be deemed prima 
facie evidence of his intention of hunting or fishing thereon. 

Section two of the same act provides that : 

The owner, occupant or person in charge of the land or such person 
as he may conunand to assist him may arrest any person who violates 
any of the provisions of the preceding section and forthwith take him 
before some proper prosecuting officer who shall proceed to try such 
person. 

William H, Gibney is the special protective officer for Berlin, 
appointed by the fish and game warden of Hartford county. 

At a distance of a mile or so west of Earl Cooley's, the road, 
which leads to Kensington, is crossed by Crooked brook, there 
abont a mile away from its head springs. 

In April, 1895, a company of business men, known as "The 
Kensington Fish and Game Club," whose office is at Hartford, 
purchased a tract of land bordering this stream. 

'Now, by additional purchase through Mr. John ISTorton, their 
agent at Berlin, they own most of the way on both sides of 
the brook, for the length of a mile, extending north from the 
Kensington road, and besides this, they have leased land for 
half a mile farther down the stream. 

As one good result of this ownership, the banks of Crooked 
brook will not be despoiled by the wood-cutter, and while notices 
everywhere warn trespassers, we may feast our eyes on the 
mosses, the maiden hair ferns, and — well — only a poet could 
fittingly describe the beauties of Crooked brook and its "sylvan 
slopes." 

Turning eastward from the brook we rise a hill and come up 
onto the plains of Berlin, once covered with rattle boxes, now 
the property of the Connecticut Valley Orchard Company. 
This company was formed May 14, 1884, under the late John B. 
Smith as organizer and president. Mr. Smith, with his usual 
foresight, saw the possibilities of that sandy, barren plain, and 
by his advice the company purchased two hundred and forty- 
three acres there, to be used as a fruit orchard. For quick 
returns peaches were at first the main dependence. 



TROUT STREAMS OF BERLIN 237 

l^ow, if yau care to count the trees, you will find .'5,000 
apples, 10,000 peaches, 1,000 plums, 500 pears, and 250 
cherries. Of grapes there are 1,000 vines. Truly the desert 
has been made to blossom as the rose. 

The life of a fruit grower is one of eternal vigilance. Yellows 
made no end of trouble with the peaches. A blight came over 
the quinces, and now the fight is on with the San Jose scale, with 
possibly the Gypsy and Brown Tail moth later. 

In 1905 this property was transferred to J. T. Molumphy, 
who is now president, manager and chief stockholder of the 
business. 

A walk across the fields north of the peach orchard brings 
us to "Cranberry ]\larsh" curiously set, like a great basin, 
on that high ground, little lower than the sandy plain above. 
Hills are on every side. There is no inlet, no outlet to the 
marsh. Near the western bank is a little lake of clear water, 
said to be fathomless. Who knows but here is the "lost crater." 
All about the marsh is a dense thicket, where high bush huckle- 
berries grow. Cranberry vines creep everywhere over the 
mossy bogs. From pools, here and there, a greedy pitcher plant 
lifts its rosette of cups. Women, in their craze for this queer 
side-saddle flower, have been known to follow from bog to bog, 
all the way across the marsh, but this is a dangerous under- 
taking. A mis-step might swamp one to the neck, and worse. 

Should you visit this interesting place, as the children say, 
"keep your eyes peeled" for snakes — blacksnakes, rattlesnakes, 
and red adders. Great place for snakes ! and there are lots of 
hornets' nests there, too. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Belcher Brook and Us Industries. — The History of Risley's 
Mill. — James Lamb's Stove Factory. — The Blair Factory. 

As we drive eastward from the peach orchard, down one hill 
and up another, so steep that we shall want to get out of the 
carriage and walk, to spare the horse, we come to the farm long 
known as the Hollister Risley place, now the home of Sidney 
Roby and his family. Here Miss Helen Roby will be pleased 
to show you her studio adorned with many water color paint- 
ings. That Miss Roby is a lover of the sea is proved by her 
charming coast scenes, chiefly from Gloucester and the Bay of 
Massachusetts. These pictures, the wharfs, the rocks, and the 
quaint homes of the fishermen, with their boats at anchor or 
wave-borne, all show the artist and her superior skill as a drafts- 
man. Miss Roby spent three years abroad in stud}^ under 
Harry Thompson at Paris, and with Theresa Hegg at Nice. 

As a painter of flowers. Miss Roby has few equals in this 
country. While in Paris she was told that it would be useless 
for her to offer any of her work to the Salon without influential 
support. She made the attempt, however, and a large bunch 
of chrysanthemums which she sent was accepted solely on its 
merit, and placed in the exhibit — a great honor for a young 
American girl. 

At the corners from Mr. Cooley's, the turnpike leads north- 
easterly past the places once owned by C. J. Griswold and 
G. R. Aspinwall, the former a bricklayer and mason, the latter 
a house carpenter. 

From the same starting point another road runs north to 
Risley's pond, so called, on Belcher brook. A dam here, across 
the stream, gives a good water power that has been utilized 
many years. 

A deed of date January 25, 1790, shows that, at that time, 
William Kilbourn of Worthington Parish, for the consideration 



BELCHER BROOK AND ITS INDUSTRIES 239 

of £147 Ifis., sold to Lucius Cook of Wallin^rford, 120 rods of 
ground, "bounded West & North on Wait Smith, East & South 
on Josiah Norton, together with my dwelling house, shop and 
Dye House thereon standing. And also my Tools which I 
improve to carry on the clothiers Business, viz. Dye Kettles, 
Screw, Shiers & prep plate etc. togetlier with every other article 
which I improve in the works." "And also my Fulling Mill 
standing by a Grist Mill now owned by Hezekiah Sage and 
W^illiam Tryon." 

From the description given in this deed, tlie conclusion is 
that the property conveyed was that of this south mill on 
Belcher brook. 

When Mr. Kilboum started his business, or when Lucius 
Cook sold it, we cannot say, but we do know that later Nathan 
Elton made satinet there, and that he was a dyer and fuller 
of cloth. Satinet is a coarse material used for men's wear, 
made with a cotton warp and woolen filling. A part of the 
building was used as a saw mill when Mr. Elton was there. 

The property came into the possession of Elishama Brande- 
gee, merchant, who, about the year 1830, sold it to the firm 
of Justus & William Bulkeley, who used the water power for 
polishing their tinner's tools. Then, when Mr. Brandegee 
wished to start his son Jacob in the business of making German 
silver spoons, the Bulkeleys fitted a room in that factory with 
machinery for the purpose. For some reason ^Ir. Brandegee 
was unable to carry out his plan, and the Bulkeleys made the 
spoons, but used the J. S. Brandegee stamp. In a little while 
they had twenty men at work on the spoons. Made of the 
best German silver, they were quite durable, and many of them 
may be found in the kitchens of to-day. The objection to them 
was that they had a coppery taste and were readily attacked 
by salt, so as to form verdigris, and it was too much trouble 
to keep them bright. William Sage worked on these spoons 
when he was married in 1840, and his daughter, ^Miss Hattie 
Sage, has still a number of the sets that he made for his wife 
when they went to housekeeping. Some are marked "J. S. 
Brandegee," others bear the stamp "11. Kenea & Co." 



240 HISTOKY OF BERLIN 

Henry Kenea was an imcle of Mrs. Henry Sage. 

When the Bulkeleys repaired the shop one of the extensions 
fell, and Ealph Sage had a leg broken, that kept him on his 
back for a long time. 

Besides the German silver spoons, the Bulkeleys made, for 
K. K. Clark of ISTew York, large quantities of brass spoons, 
silver plated. The goods were stamped out at the mill, and 
brought up to the factoiy opposite Colonel Bulkeley's, where 
they were boiled in a silver solution. 

The sheets of metal, German silver and brass, were pur- 
chased in Waterbury of John D. Johnson, whose wife was 
Sarah Loveland, daughter of Landlord Elijah Loveland. The 
scraps were too valuable to be used as filling for holes in the 
highway ; they were taken back to Mr. Johnson to be remelted, 
and Mr. Bulkeley remembers riding with his father on a wagon 
load of those scraps over to Waterbury. They drove home by 
way of JNTew Haven. 

The Bulkeleys had all the work they wanted to do with 
their tinners' tools, and so they gave up the making of spoons 
to Ralph Sage and Henry Durand. 

Mr. Sage invented a diving machine, in which he went down 
into the depths of the pond. He survived the experiment. 

In 1844, Justus Bulkeley died, and Lyman Wilcox, who 
married his daughter Maria, and who had learned his trade 
of the Bulkeleys, bought the old mill with its appurtenances. 
He built a dwelling house, still standing, southeasterly from 
the mill, and had established a good business in tinners' tools, 
when he died March 10, 1855, aged thirty-six. His wife sur- 
vived him less than four years. They left three little children. 
Lyman, the oldest, a soldier in the War of the Rebellion, 
prisoner at Andersonville and Florence, died May 29, 1875. 
His wife and two children now live at Anaheim, Cal. 

The second son, Robert M. Wilcox, long connected with the 
Meriden Britannia Company, used to manifest his interest in 
the boys of his native town by his annual gift of a silver cup 
and medal, ''The Bulkeley Prize Cup," to the one who won 
in the foot race at our agricultural fair. Mrs. Wilcox is the 
well-known poetess, Ella Wheeler Wilcox. 



BELCHER BROOK AND ITS INDUSTRIES 241 

Harriet, the youngest of the three, the wife of Leander Bunce, 
now lives in New Britain. 

Deacon Selah Galpin of Westfield, the father of Miss Sarah 
Galpin, bought the mill and factory property of the estate of 
Lvman Wilcox, for his son Charles, who made a patent four- 
tined barnyard fork. Reuben Beckley made steelyards in a 
part of the factory. 

The Galpins ground corn and feed. Lemuel W. Elton, who 
lived west of the pond, was a miller. Mr. Elton had a son, 
Levi, who played the organ in church very acceptably. One 
of his neighbors said of him, that ''he was a fine musicianer." 
He taught music, and had a large class of pupils around alx)Ut 
Berlin. 

Deacon Galpin sold out to William H. Risley, who removed 
the machinery and partitions in the shop, and put in a new grist 
mill. He also built a long addition for a saw mill. A machine 
for sawing shingles, which he set up in the mill, seems to have 
been little used. Now the property is in the hands of E. E. 
Austin, who runs a saw mill, grist mill and cider mill. He has 
also an ice house, near by, which he fills with ice of fine 
quality, cut from the pond, for his own use, and for sale. 

At a distance of about a quarter of a mile north of Risley's 
pond another dam was laid across Belcher brook, another pond 
was formed, and another factory built ; by whom we shall never 
know. The story is that he was an infidel and that no industry 
started here ever prospered. Certain it is that the place has 
been the scene of much unprofitable business. 

James Lamb, founder of the Lamb family in Berlin, was 
born in Middletown in 1777. He learned the tinners' trade of 
Shubael Pattison and invented a cooking stove. 

Early in the last century Colonel Bulkeley worked on the 
Lamb stoves, at what was known later as the Blair factory. 
This stove, the first cooking stove used by our ancestors, was 
made on much the same principle as those of the present day 
and it was the first, patented in this country, in .s^neh the hea 
passed around the oven. A stove was in use belore tins, but 
it w^as a simple box affair. 
16 



242 HISTORY OF BEKLIN 

In those days, of course, there was no place near Berlin 
where castings could be made, and Mr, Lamb went to New 
York, where he remained, while working up his invention, from 
about 1813 to 1818, when he took out his patent. In 1818 his 
son Lockwood was born in the house next east of the Blair 
factory. Mr. Lamb seems to have purchased this place before 
he went to ISTew York. 

A deed, on record at I^ew Britain, shows that in 1800, Oliver 
Hills sold land to James Lamb, bounded east on Jonah j^orton, 
south on highway, with house thereon. Mr. Lamb sold his 
place in 1823 to Samuel Edwards of Philadelphia. 

In 1822 he had moved over to the Colonel Bulkeley house, 
where his daughter Louisa was bom. 

The new cooking stove was square and upright, with brass 
urns on the corners, which were kept shining bright by good 
housewives. The lettering on the front was a great curiosity, 
and many a child learned his a. b. c's from the Lamb stove. 

The fire was high up, over the oven, and when the new stove 
took the place of the open-hearth fire, old men complained that 
there was no place to warm their feet. Reuben JSTorth made a 
high platform, placed his chair thereon, and mounted himself 
on a level with the fire. The oven was a good baker, equal to 
any in use to-day. 

Miss Fannie Robbins tells this story of her father: "One 
morning he arose early, made a fire in his new Lamb stove, and 
closed the oven door. Presently he heard a pitiful mewing, 
as of a cat in distress. He searched everywhere until at last 
he opened the oven door and out jumped the cat." This story 
brings to mind another, nothing to do with stoves : One morn- 
ing before daybreak, there was a fearful noise in the dining 
room of the Robbins hause, as of someone breaking up all of 
the furniture and crockery. Mr, Robbins did not dare to go 
in and meet the intruder, single handed, but as soon as it was 
light enough to see, he, with the hired man, each armed with a 
club, ventured cautiously to open the door. Instead of a raving 
maniac, there was only the cat, her head fast in a milk pitcher, 



BELCHER BROOK AND ITS INDUSTRIES 243 

which sho was slamming about in her frantic efforts to free 
herself." 

That the Lambs were fond of alliteration is shown by the 
names they gave their children : Lysis, Lesbia, Lewis, Leverett, 
(Huldah), Loomis, Lockwood, Louisa, and Lorenzo. Iluldah 
was named for Mr. Lamb's first wife. 

Of the nine children, two are still living, in Hartford, Mrs. 
James B. Carpenter (Louisa) and Lorenzo. Not a representa- 
tive of the family remains in Berlin. 

The father, James Lamb, died February 9, 1833, aged 
fifty-six. 

If Mr. Lamb had known the worth of his invention and 
had held on to his patent, he and his family might have been 
immensely rich. 

It is impossible to find dates for all the industries which 
were carried on at Blair's, by help of the water power from 
Belcher's brook. 

After James Lamb's time, meal, from corn ground in the 
grist mill, was dried for export to the West Indies. The 
kiln, in which the meal was baked, stood north of the pond, 
at a safe distance from other buildings. At the saw mill, 
trunks of great trees, from our primitive forests, were made 
into lumber for home use, and also for export. Yam, spun 
here, by machinery, from cotton and wool, was given out to 
families to be woven into cloth on hand looms. 

After the Bulkeleys sold the Eisley mill to Lyman Wilcox, 
they ground their tinners' tools and made rotary shears for 
cutting sheet metal in circles at Blair's factory. 

Isaac Farnham, the father of Mrs. William Sage, and his 
brother, who were coopers, made tubs for Mr. Brandegee, in a 
shop under the dam, at the north end of the pond. 

The Farnhams lived in the house next east of the factory. 
The ell of this house and the bam were of hewm timbers, as 
if made from some ancient building, probably on the place, 
as mentioned in the deed, when James Lamb bought it, in 
1800. The main part of the house was large and fine, built 



244 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

of sawed timbers. It looked like the work of Elishama Brande- 
gee. Families who lived here boarded the factory people until 
it came to be known as the boarding house. 

Lucy Farnham was a remarkably pretty girl, with a lovely 
pink and white complexion. It will help us to a date for some 
of these industries, to know that she joined the Worthington 
church in 1837. 

Elishama Brandegee, who owned the property about this time, 
fitted up the factory with machinery for making sewing silk 
and cotton thread. The industry, which was carried on in East 
Berlin at the same time, gave employment to forty girls, under 
the brothers Nicholas and James Douglass as foremen. Both 
had families. James lived in the Deacon Horsford place. 

Much of the thread was sold in penny skeins, but a part of 
it was wound on spools; about the first attempt at spooling 
thread in this country. It was dyed all colors, on the premises, 
by Charley Bauer, who went to Hartford and set up a wine 
store on Market Street. He used to go over to Germany to buy 
his wines. 

Plucart, who came after Bauer, lived in the second house 
east of the factory. Word came to him from his home in 
Prussia that a large fortune had fallen to him there. He 
was greatly elated, and when he started off for his native land, 
to take possession of his inheritance, he promised to come back 
and make Kalph Sage and all of his other Berlin friends rich. 
He never returned. 

William Bevans, who succeeded Douglass as foreman of the 
thread mill, lived in the house now occupied by F. H. Shaw. 
The boys used to call him "Old Campfire" because of the 
way he pronounced the word. 

His son William learned the wagon maker's trade of John 
Graham. Then he went, with others of his family, to New 
York, where he became a doctor. 

Names remembered of other Bevans children are Sarah and 
Frances. The Eev. R. McGonegal, who preached here in the 
Methodist church, married Frances. Their young daughter, 
Althea, who died in New York City of consumption in 1867, 



BELCHER BROOK AND ITS INDUSTRIES 245 

begged that she might be buried in the country under a tree. 
She and her two little brothers, who had died previously, were 
brought to Berlin and laid between two maple trees in the 
South Cemetery, where the McGonegal monument may be seen. 

In 1850 Charles Blair came to Berlin from Collinsville and 
established a business for the manufacture of steel rakes, plan- 
tation hoes, axes, chisels and carpenters' draw shaves. His 
name, which has been used by anticipation, was at that time 
first given to this north pond and factory on Belcher brook. 
The property was deeded on October 14, 1850, by Elishama 
Brandegee, to a joint stock company, incorporated under the 
name of the Blair Manufacturing Company. The capital 
stock, mostly subscribed by the business men of Berlin, was 
$20,000, which seemed unlimited in those days. $15,G25 were 
paid in. 

Elishama Brandegee headed the list of subscribers with a 
hundred shares. l!^orman Porter held sixty shares, Norton 
and Arnold sixty. Other subscribers were: Timothy Board- 
man, S. C. Wilcox, Elisha M. Hall, Henry Norton, Norris 
Peck, E. A. Deming, Benjamin R. Fanning, Norman Porter, 
Jr., Joseph Alston Wilcox, Charles Blair, Shubael Risley, 
Joseph Whittlesey, Philip Norton, and Erastus J. Bassett. 
Doubtless there w^ere names, not at hand, that should be added 
to this list. Norman Porter was president of the company, 
Timothy Boardman secretary. Samuel C. Wilcox was one of 
the directors. 

For a time great things were expected from the new enter- 
prise, but the water-power, especially in summer time, was 
insufficient to carry the heavy machinery. In order to store 
the water and to increase the power, a second dam was built 
south of the bridge, which flooded the land back as far as 
Eisley's. A vain hope. The company struggled on, losing 
money, until the spring of 1856, when an assignment was made 
for the benefit of the creditors. 

The only incident reported from Blair's was the bursting of 
a grindstone five feet in diameter, which flew through the side 
of the factory and out into the lot a hundred feet away. No 
loss of life. 



246 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

Mr. Blair, who, with his estimable family, had lived in the 
Dr. Gridley house, returned to Collinsville, where for many 
years he filled the position of superintendent of the extensive 
factories of the Collins Axe Company. 

After the assignment the interest of a majority of the stock- 
holders was taken by Philip l^Torton and E. J. Bassett. The 
tools in process of manufacture were completed, and, with the 
movable personal property, were sold at auction, by Colonel 
Bulkeley. Several days were required to complete the sale. 
Finally, after all outside business was finished, the title to the 
property was vested in Philip ]!^orton, who sold to Frank Hart, 
brother of Walter Hart, a wood turner. Then Edward A. 
Deming bought the factory and set Burt Brothers up in busi- 
ness, as wood turners. They made a combination ladder and 
chair, upholstered. One of those chairs is still in use on the 
porch at the house of the late Albert G. Warren. Mr. Bulkeley 
has one of the Blair plantation hoes now, in his barn. It is 
too broad for iSTew England soil. Besides the tools mentioned, 
pickaxes were made at Blair's, and pikes for John Brcwn, 
whose "soul goes marching on." Last of all the Burt Brothers, 
or some one else, ran a cider mill on the premises. Then the 
old factory stood idle for a time. One of the additions was 
sold to George C. Austin, the carpenter, who tore it down and 
used the lumber in his new house up on the hill north of the 
village, but the principal building remained. ]^aughty boys 
broke in the windows and did other damage. Some were 
arrested, convicted and fined. 

One evening in the fall of 1885, Mr. Deming, who then lived 
in the house now occupied as a parsonage, looked out from a 
window and saw a great light in the south. He mounted his 
horse and galloped away to see where the fire was. Yes, it 
was the Blair factory, all in flames, and not a cent of insurance. 

The premium was high, and when the policy expired, he 
declined to renew. He said he had paid out money all his 
life for insurance, and had never received anything in return, 
and he would take his chances on the factory. Moral ? 



BELCHER BROOK AND ITS INDUSTRIES 247 

Since that time, the two houses that stood east of the factory — 
the p:ood boarding house and the Plucart house — have been 
destroyed by fire. 

Old Charley, the horse that j\lr. Dciiiiug rode to the lire, was 
worthy of mention. He was raised from a colt, over on the 
Demiug farm in Christian Lane, and lived to the age of thirty- 
six. He never served his master a mean trick. !Mr. Deming's 
daughter, j\Irs. Stowe, thinks that Charlie's mother, "Old Kate," 
was also raised by her father, and that she lived to bo thirty. 

Mr. Doming died suddenly, June 15, ISOG, in his ninety- 
second year. Only two or three days before his death he drove 
his horse from Cromwell to Hartford and back. One of his 
last requests was that Charley should be shot and buried with 
his hide and shoes on. Mrs. Stowe thought it was a dreadful 
thing to do, to kill so good a horse, so fat and nice. 

Before Mr. Blair's time, the road running west from the 
Hosford place terminated at the factory, and there was closed 
by bars. A narrow laneway extended thence, west to the Ken- 
sington road, and was used by farmers who wished to carry 
grist to and from the mill. It is said that Mr. Blair paid Elton 
$350 for a strip of land along one side of the laneway to widen 
it, so that teams might pass and have room to turn around. 

The house next west of the factory, now owned by William 
Luby, was the home of Nathan Elton the clothier, and of his 
son, Lemuel W. Elton, the miller. 

The north half of this house was the shoe shop of Samuel 
Bishop, drawn here from the east yard of the E. I. Clark 
place, at Bishop's corners. A little farther along, the road, 
as it comes from the south, turns a sharp corner toward Ken- 
sington. Long ago there was a square here with a road on 
all sides of it. A house was moved up the south road on its 
way to Kensington, and was left on this square over night. 

Peleg Chapman, the man with nineteen children, was in 
search of a home. He bought that house on wheels, left it on 
the square of land where it stood, and lived in it many years. 
Then it was occupied by a family of evil repute. One night 
the neighbors formed themselves into a law and order league, 
and tore the house down, over the heads of its inmates. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Lower Lane. — Isaac Norton and his Descendants. — Norton's 
Saw Mill— The Great Flood of 1797. 

As we go eastward from the Blair factory, the first left-hand 
corner turns onto Hart Street, or "Lower Lane." We are told 
that this road once extended farther south, half a mile or so, 
to a point north of the Edward Hall place, where it came out 
on the Hartford and ISTew Haven turnpike. In early times 
this Lower Lane road was the main street, the highway of 
this part of the to^m. In 1786 Elnathan ISTorton and Roger 
Riley, for the consideration of thirteen pounds, sold two acres 
and eighty-five rods of land to the town of Berlin for a "High- 
way," described as "bounded East on country road, West on 
Highway, ISTorth partly on said Eluathan ISTorton's land, partly 
on sd Roger Riley and partly on land lately sold to Samuel Hart, 
Junr., South partly on land of sd Eluathan JSTorton, and partly 
on Elijah Loveland's land," and "is to run Easterly and 
Westerly in parallel line with the road that runs east and west 
between sd N"orton's and Samuel Harts dwelling house, to be 
improved forever as an open road only." "Said piece of ground 
is 135 rods in length East and West, and 3 rods in width." 

This road is the one that extends from Jarvis corner to Hart 
Street. The brothers, Darius and ISTelson Richardson, lived in 
the large, square-roofed house near the west end of this street. 
Their father, Zenas, had a shoe shop, east of the house; their 
mother was Vashti Norton; her father, Andrew Norton, used 
to grind tan bark in the lot opposite the house, where the remains 
of several dams and one of the old mill stones may be seen 
to-day. 

The ponds are dry now, but back in the fields are springs, 
which, a hundred years ago, fed a brook of sufiicient power to 
turn Andrew Norton's mill wheels. 



LOWER LANE 



249 



Mrs. Arnold, the mother of Mrs. Leonard Hubbard, used 
to say that when they came to Berlin, in 1838, that stream 
ran through their lots, and on north, under the little bridge, 
west of Benjamin Fanning's blacksmith shop, to the ^latta- 
bessett. 

Besides the Richardson house, there was one other built on 
this street soon after it was opened in 1786. It stands on the 
north side, near the east end, a very attractive old place. Three 
generations of the Wood family lived here. Father, son, and 
grandson bore the name of Charles. 

In the early fifties Tom Thumb was exhibited in Berlin and 
everybody went to see him, down in the old church. Tom's 
showman asked to have some little girl from the audience 
placed upon the platform beside him, and when a little miss 
was brought from the back of the church, people whispered 
"that's little Rosa Wood; isn't she pretty?" And she was, 
pretty as a picture, with her great brown e^'es and dark curling 
hair. Rosa was the daughter of Charles Wood, 2d. She was 
married at sixteen to Oliver Bacon and died soon after her 
marriage. Her schoolmates still speak of her remarkable beauty. 

ISTelson Richardson married Ilepsy Dickinson, one of the five 
daughters of Russel Dickinson, who lived in the house on the 
west side of Hart Street, nearest the Blair factory road now 
known as the Shaw place. Mr. Dickinson was a tinner. 

The house on the corner northeasterly from the Shaws, 
formerly owned by Ansel and George Thomas, is now occupied 
by Edgar M, Carter, the plumber. 

The next house north of the Shaw's on the same side was 
the home of Elijah Stanley, who for many years made fine, 
well-fitting shoes. He had a number of apprentices. Elijah 
Stanley died in 1857, aged sixty-five. The Stanley place is 
now owmed by C. O. Hanford, who has made extensive improve- 
ments in the dwelling house. 

Hiram Francis and his family lived in a large white house 
next north of the Stanley place. They moved to ^leriden 
about the year 1870, and soon after that the house, while occu- 
pied by John Hannon, was burned. It was replaced by the 



250 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

house recently occupied by E. S. Biirnham, now owned by 
George B. Carter. 

Still going north we pass, on the left hand, the farm long 
known as the Samuel Durand place. Mr. Durand and his 
wife Eloisa (Lewis) came to Berlin from Cheshire. They 
joined the Worthington church in 1827. At first they lived 
in what was known as the '"blue house" next east of the Bridge 
Cemetery. Mrs. Durand died in 1832, leaving children whose 
names were: Frederick L., Henry S., Andrew, John, Sarah, 
Frances, and Mrs. Jennette A. Durand Cox. She joined the 
Second Congregational Church of Berlin in 1831 and was dis- 
missed in 1837. Mr. Durand married, in 1834, for his second 
wife, Rebecca Root, sister of Cyrus and Timothy Root. Their 
children were: Almira H., Louisa R., Jane E., Hannah, Loyal 
R., and William. 

Mrs. Rebecca Durand died at Milwaukee, September, 1896, 
aged ninety-five. 

Frederick Durand was a lawyer and settled in Rochester, 

Henry was first a merchant at Meriden, at Berlin and at 
Kensington. Afterward he went to Racine, Wis., and became 
a noted fire insurance adjuster. 

Andrew went south and was living there during the Civil 
War. 

John, a railroad man, lived in Rochester, IST. Y. 

Loyal went west and was in the fire insurance business, as 
is also his brother William. Loyal died soon after the Chicago 
fire, overtaxed, it was said, by the strain of work incident 
thereto. 

Samuel Durand died December 4, 1871. Then the farm 
was purchased by Huber Bushnell, and Mrs. Durand, with her 
daughters Louisa and Jane, went to Milwaukee to live with 
William. 

Almira and Hannah (Mrs. Gould) live in Rochester, 1^. Y. 

Frances (Mrs. Miller) lives in Iowa City, Iowa. 

Jules, a colored man, and his wife Flora, who worked for Mr. 
Durand, lived in a little house that stood a short distance south 



LOWER LANE 251 

of the Durand house. Jnlcs used to l)low tlio church organ 
after Charles Stocker died. lie was a big man. The school 
children were afraid of him, and used to run and hide when 
they saw him coming along tlie road. 

'Now prepare to take off your hats to the men, and women, 
too, who dwelt around the corners to which we approach. In 
1705 the men of Great Swamp, who, with their wives and 
children, — babies in arms, muskets in front, muskets in the 
rear, had been obliged to tramp eight miles through the forests 
to Farmington village, for their Sunday privileges, decided 
that they must have a church nearer their homes. 

The town gave consent, and a petition dated October 11, 
1705, sent to the General Assembly, was granted for the people 
on this side of ''Blow mountain'' to "set up in this desolate 
corner of the wilderness" for themselves. 

Isaac I^orton was one of the signers of that petition. lie 
was described as a rich merchant, pious and useful. He bore 
the titles of Ensign and Lieutenant. He and Elizabeth Galpin 
of Stafford, Conn., were married in 1707. They were members 
of Christian Lane church in 1712. 

Their dwelling was here on the northeast of the four cor- 
ners, to which we have come — not the present corner house, 
that is modem, — but farther east. 

The children of Isaac and Elizabeth Xorton were ; Elizabeth, 
b. 1708, married Jonathan Edwards of Middletown [near 
Edward Hall's]; Charles, b. 1710; Ruth, b. 1711, m. Wil- 
liam, son of Rev. William Burnham of Kensington ; Isaac, b. 
1713, m. Sarah Seymour; Abigail, b. 171G, m. Luke Hitch- 
cock of Springfield ; Tabitha, b. 1718, m. 1740 Colonel Isaac 
Lee; Achsah, b. 1721, m. Jedediah Xorton of Guilford [it was 
he who gave the church organ in 1791]; Josiah, b. 172G ; 
EInathan, ninth child, b. 1729, m. first, Rachel Woodruff, 
second, Sybel Goodrich. 

Solomon ]^orton, son of EInathan, inherited the Isaac Norton 
place. From him it went to his son, Elisha Norton, 

The late James C. Arnold came to Berlin from "down the 
River," about 1838. He purchased from Elisha Norton his 



252 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

great-grandfather's house, with a part of the lands adjoining. 
The house, which then had a double-hipped roof, was remodeled 
bj Mr. Arnold beyond recognition, but the foundations and 
frame, with a part of the ell, remain, and the floors are the 
very same that on that July evening of 1740, trembled under 
the dancing feet of the guests, "Beckleys and Buckleys, Norths 
and Roots, Gilberts and Porters," at Tabitha's wedding. For 
Tabitha, the heroine of Mrs. Willard's "Bride Stealing," was 
the daughter of this "rich Isaac Norton." 

Isaac Lee, the bridegroom of "twenty-three," "grave and 
sedate," "of giant mould," was commissioned Captain of the 
Thirteenth Company of Train Bands in the Sixth Regiment 
in this colony, in May, 1767. The same year he was appointed 
Lieutenant-Colonel of the Fifteenth Regiment, and in March, 
1775, Colonel of the same regiment. 

Lieutenant Isaac Norton died January 10, 1763, in the 
eighty-fourth year of his age. 

Elnathan, his youngest son, born 1729, lived on the south- 
west corner, diagonally opposite his father's house. In 1756 
he and his wife, Rachel (Woodruff) were enrolled as members 
of the Christian Lane church. They had three sons and three 
daughters. 

Elnathan Norton was a large landholder. It is said that he 
owned down south as far as Edward Hall's, over west as far as 
Norton's saw mill, and east up to the "Street." We can hardly 
go amiss of his name on the old deeds of this locality. Elnathan 
Norton died July 30, 1801, aged seventy-two. 

Solomon Norton, bom 1760, son of Elnathan, lived in his 
grandfather Isaac Norton's house. He had three sons : Linus, 
Isaac, and Elisha. Linus lived in Beckley Quarter. 

Isaac, born 1788, lived on the southwest corner, after his 
grandfather, Elnathan, and built a new house, still standing 
there. He married Milly, daughter of Asaph and Eunice 
(French) Goodrich, his next-door neighbor, on the south. A 
deed of January 7, 1796, shows that at that time Elnathan 
Norton sold to Asaph Goodrich a piece of land bounded as 



LOWER LANE 253 

follows : east on highway, south on Roger Riley, north and west 
on his own land. 

Asaph Goodrich, born 1767, married Eunice French, daugh- 
ter of Daniel French, and he, Daniel French, made, over on 
the site of Norton's saw mill, the first cut nails in the country. 
The dam was built by George Hubbard. 'Mr. French died in 
1784, aged thirty-eight, and the business was taken to 
Middletown. 

Deacon Selah Goodrich, gi-andson of Mr. French, was the 
authority for the foregoing statement. 

Asaph Goodrich was a tinner. He used the front room of 
his house, built next south of Elnathan Norton's, for a shop. 
His specialty was foot-stoves, which, with various articles of 
tinware, were displayed in his front windows. 

Mrs. Goodrich was a faithful attendant on church services. 
One Sunday, as she walked down the north side of the hill, 
on her way home, she saw some kind of a plant growing in the 
lot, that she wanted, and so she bent over between the rails 
and picked until she had a handful. As she gathered the 
flowers she moved along to a place where the rails were so near 
together that when she tried to remove her head it stuck fast 
There she hung, and there she would have died had she not been 
discovered by a neighbor coming along the road. 

Of three children born to Isaac and Milly Norton, Henry was 
the only one who lived to maturity. He married Gertnide, 
daughter of the Rev. Asahel C. Washburn. In 18G9, with 
father and mother Washburn, and mother Norton, they moved 
to Syracuse, where Henry was engaged in the fire insurance 
business. 

The family met with severe financial losses, and to cap the 
climax, Henry died, leaving five little children. Gertrude, 
his wife, was a student of Mt. Holyoke, and had taught in the 
schools of Berlin. She rose to the situation, started a kinder- 
garten, and by her indomitable energy succeeded in giving a 
good education to her two sons and three daughters. The 
boys went to Cornell, and are now employed in smelters, Wads- 



254 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

worth at Murray, Salt Lake, Utah, and Alfred at East Helena, 
Mont. Of the daughters, Nellie is a stenographer, Lena is a 
school teacher and a violinist. Gertrude also is a school teacher. 
Formerly it was a custom of the churches to appoint indi- 
viduals to go about from house to house to solicit contributions 
for benevolent objects. Mrs. Isaac N'orton would wear a straw 
bonnet to church all winter, but she always welcomed a collector 
for foreign missions with a gift of five dollars. 

Over west of Isaac Norton's, a family by the name of Miller 
lived in a small house that was burned. The Millers, husband 
and wife, were drunkards. In their sprees, she would scold him, 
and he would abuse her. Once, when she ran out of doors and 
yelled "murder !" the neighbors, who went to her rescue, found 
him in the house, rocking the baby, as nice and pleasant as 
could be. One day, while Mrs. Miller was at work for Mrs. 
Norton, as she saw her husband going by the house, she put her 
head out of a window and said some hateful things to him, 
whereupon he picked up a brickbat, threw it full drive at her, 
and smashed in all her front teeth. 

The Millers had a daughter, Amelia, who was quite a pretty 
girl. This was in the forties. 

Elisha Norton, son of Solomon, married Laura Belden, April 
28, 1830. They had two sons, Horace and James, and five 
daughters, Amelia, Harriet, Emily, Julia, and Ellen. They 
lived, at first, on the old Isaac Norton homestead. Then Mr. 
Norton sold that place to James C. Arnold and built a new 
house on the southeast corner, now owned by the Hall brothers. 
One of the industries of the early settlers was the clearing 
up of land. When Mr. Arnold purchased his place the lot 
opposite the house was a tangle of wild grape vines, and it 
was a hard task to root them out. People used to come from 
a distance to gather grapes from those vines. Mr. Norton and 
Mr. Arnold, both carpenters, carried on business together under 
the firm liame of Norton & Arnold. They built the present 
Congregational church, in the village, which was afterward 
altered by putting in side galleries and a lower ceiling. The 
steeple was also strengthened by a new one built outside of and 



LOWER LANE 255 

higher than the old one. Mr. Arnold built the Lyman Nott 
house, the Washburn house, the Fowler house, and in 1850, the 
old Berlin depot. Mr. Norton's joiner shop still stands, east 
of the house where he lived. Mr. Arnold moved his shop, 
which was east of that, across to the north side of the road 
and made it into a dwelling house; then he bought a shop from 
some place, up on the street (where?) and moved it down 
onto the site of the first one — where it still remains. 

About the year 1857 Mr. i^orton removed to Racine, Wis. 
It was said, there, that Elisha Norton had the handsomest 
family of daughters in Racine. 

It used to be required of voters that they should own a 
certain amount of real estate. A citizen of Berlin, anxious 
that his son should vote, deeded to him a piece of land on the 
south side of this street, with the understanding that the son 
should convey the property back to him after he had voted, but 
the young man concluded to keep it, and built himself a house 
there. The house and the people are all gone now. 

Near this place lives John Hudson Webber, now in his 
ninety-fourth year, who for many years made shoes in a shop 
attached to the rear of his dwelling. 

Over in the lot back of Mr. Webber's, once stood a slaughter, 
used by many butchers. At times the south winds wafted from 
that spot were enough to make a horse break into a run. The 
house recently remodeled by George S. Schofield was occupied 
about the year 1840 by a brick mason whose name was Noble. 
He disappeared, and his family were in great distress of mind. 
A German doctor here, who professed to have magic sight, 
said that the missing man had been murdered and that his body 
was secreted up on Newington mountain. A wagon load of 
men from the village — it was a Sunday — went up there, but 
found no trace of him. A few mornings after that William 
Bulkeley, on his way do^vn to the south district school, mec 
Noble, in the road, coming this way. The boy ran home, as 
fast as his feet would carry him, to tell his father that Mr. 
Noble was not dead — he had come home. The man had been 
off on a "drunk." 



266 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

The house now owned by Henry L. Porter was occupied in 
the forties, and later, by Marvin Lee, who used the basement 
as a shoe shop, the entrance to which was by a door cut through 
the brickwork. This doorway was afterwards closed, but its 
outlines are still in evidence. The Lees had two gentle, fair- 
haired daughters, Caroline and Mary. The family moved 
away to I^ew York State, and Anson Porter succeeded Mr. Lee 
in the shoemaking business. 

We do not knew when this street was opened but Aunt Abby 
Pattison always spoke of it as "the new road." The Isaac 
ISTorton house and the brick house, now owned by Leon LeClair, 
are the only really old houses built upon it and both are so near 
the main streets that they might have been placed there before 
this road was cut through by the town, and then in old times 
a laneway was possible. A comparatively modern house, that 
stood west of Mr. Arnold's, on the corner now owned by E. E. 
Austin, which was burned some twenty years since, was said 
to have been built by Evelyn Peck, a stone cutter, who had a 
marble yard connected with his house by a woodshed. This 
place was occupied for many years by the Henry Deming 
family. Silas Hurlburt, who married Elizabeth Deming, had 
a stove store on the premises. 



In August, 1797, Berlin was nearly drowned out by a flood, 
A tremendous quantity of water fell from the skies — some called 
it a cloudburst. 

At a town meeting, held April 9, 1798, Captain James I^orth, 
Amos Hosford, and Selah Hart were appointed a committee 
to examine respecting the damage done by the late flood, and 
determine how much shall be paid to each parish out of the 
town treasury to make good such damage. At the same meet- 
ing it was voted that "the town will be of the expense of 
building and repairing the wood part of Beckley's and Kirby's 
bridges, and that the several societies shall be at the expense 
of the other work and bridges in each parish." 



LOWER LANE 257 

May 4, 1798, committees were appointed for Kensington 
parish and for New Britain to make good the damage done 
by the late flood. iSTearly or quite all the bridges in town had 
been swept away and according to Deacon Selah Goodrich, who 
was then a well-grown lad, every milldam but the one at 
Norton's sawmill was carried off. 

Here at the "comers," Andrew Norton's pond broke away, 
and washed nearly up to the houses. Great gullies were made 
on the hillside that may be seen to-day. 

If Norton's milldam withstood the flood of 17i)7, its time 
came later. Mr. Bulkeley remembers that it wont off when 
he was a boy. It was rebuilt by Philip Norton, who, in 1849, 
built the mill and put in machinery for sawing lumber from 
logs carried there by farmers of the vicinity. 

In 1860, John Norton, son of Philip, was doing a prosperous 
business at the mill making carriage lumber from flne trees 
which he selected and bought for the purpose wherever he could 
find them. 

John Graham used the gi'ound floor for turning spokes for 
his wagon wheels. This mill was burned December, 1905. No 
insurance. 

West of the pond, and also farther east, on the north side, 
over in the Brown's pasture, are clay pits and traces of brick 
kilns that were in use fifty years ago or so. 

The clay was ground by a wheel with one horse power, then 
poured into wooden moulds, and slipped out onto lx)ards to 
dry — all by hand work. 

Back of Norton's mill, up in the cliff, in a sort of natural 
cave, enlarged by hacking, lived Sam Smith, known as an out- 
law, a robber, and a horse stealer. It was said also that he stole 
sheep and threw their bones into the pond. 

A house that stood next west of the mill was occupied by 
Abraham Stephens, who had a large family of children. They 
had a carriage and an old horse, with which they took much 
pleasure in driving about the country. One day, when ^Ir. 
Stephens was at work in a field, and his women folks were all 
out riding, the house took fire and was destroyed. 
17 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Disposal of Ilightvay Property. — The Building of the New 
Haven Railroad. — The Train Wreck at Peat Stvamp. 

Ill our early days much of the business brought before voters 
related to roads. At a town meeting held in Farmington 
December 27, 1784, the year before Berlin was set off by her- 
self, a vote was taken to sell the highways unnecessary for 
travel. A committee was appointed to locate such highways, 
and after three months' notice to individuals, for redress, to 
sell such highways to adjoining proprietors or to others, the 
avails to be and remain a perpetual fund for the support of 
schools in the several societies. 

At a town meeting held in Berlin April 11, 1814, it was 
"Voted that the several Societies of Worthington have the 
'priviledge' of the Interest of all monies arising from the sale 
of highways, within the limits of said Society in the same 
manner as the other Societies in the town of Berlin have to 
Improve the Interest of such monies in their Several School 
Societies, the principal of such money to be Subject to the 
Same rules and Regulations as in the other parishes." 

According to the report of the town treasurer, Berlin has 
on deposit, held in trust for the benefit of schools in the Society 
of Worthington, a fund to the amount of $2,186.71, which 
accrued from the sale of highways. When the town was first 
settled, some of the roads were laid out twenty rods wide and 
even forty rods in certain places, an advantage in muddy 
weather. When one track was badly poached, another and 
another could be chosen. 

In the year 1786, after it was voted to sell highways, over 
seventy deeds were given by the town to individuals who pur- 
chased land adjoining their own property. At first twenty- 
rod highways sold for nine shillings, ten pence, the length 
bordering; on owner's land. 



DISPOSAL OF IIKillWAY PROPERTY 259 

Jonathan Edwards, one of the first settlers in the south part 
of Berlin, died in 1776, aged seventy-two. Miss Harriet 
Edwards, his great-great-granddaughter, says she used to hear 
that he lived on a road which was abandoned, over west of 
Edward Hall's place, and that the ruins of the house could still 
be seen there in the woods. Jonathan Edwards was succc?eded 
by his son Josiah, Sr. 

On May 30, 1780, a connnittee appointed by the town deeded 
to Josiah Edwards, for the consideration of fourteen pounds 
lawful money, "a part of the country road (so called ) running 
westward from said Edwards' dwelling house .... butting 
west on the four rod highway so called .... and contains 
about two acres and eighty rods of land." "Four rod highway" 
ran around into Kensington. 

Mr. Yale of Meriden used to say that once on a time there 
was a road west of the peat swamp, and that stages ran over 
that road. It butted on Hicks Street in Meriden and came out 
a little west of the Xorris Dunham place in Kensington. There 
is still one house on that road near its Kensington termination, 
and the road is yet kept open as far as that house by the town. 

At a town meeting held December 4, 1707, it was "voted that 
the selectmen be authorized to sell a highway east of the 
country road lying between the lands of Jedediah Xorton and 
Josiah Edwards, and that they offer to Jedediah Norton that 
part Iving on his lands which if he will purchase at what they 
shall judge its value they are to sell to him, othenvise they will 
sell the same at auction." Turnpikes were owned by corpora- 
tions or by individuals, whose revenue consisted of fws exacted 
from those who used the roads, and toll gates were placed at a 
distance of ten miles apart. 

Certain travelers, as those going to a funeral or to church, 
or to a training, were passed free, as were persons who lived 
near the gate when going about their ordinary business. All 
others had to pay toll according to a schedule of rates— twenty- 
five cents for a stage or a two-horse carriage; six and a quarter 
cents— fo'pence— for a one-horse wagon, and one cent for a 
single animal when driven. Lovers who visited their sweet- 



260 HISTORY OF BERLITf 

hearts and remained until the small hours of the night would 
escape payment of toll on their way home. The gate would then 
be wide open. 

About a third of a mile below the Abram Wright tavern was 
a curious toll-house ; the lower rooms were divided by the width 
of the pike, so that teams could go through. The second story 
extended across over the road and made a shelter for the gate, 
gate-man and for travelers while fumbling for change. 

A family by the name of Bassett lived there, and the children 
came up to the south district school. One of the sons, Erastus 
J., became a valued adjuster for the ^tna Fire Insurance 
Company. His house in Hartford is now owned by George H. 
Sage. Another son, Edwin, was an aeronaut. His mother 
worried so much whenever he made an ascension that he finally 
promised her he would never go up again, and he kept his word. 

The gate was abolished in 1855. 

As we go to Meriden on the steam cars, we see at the left, 
near the southern boundary of Berlin's town line, a large pond, 
with buildings bearing the sign ^'Hartford Ice Company." 
The basin of that pond is a peat swamp, some twenty-five 
acres in extent. A laneway which starts from the highway 
just south of the Henry Norton house, leads westerly and 
southerly, a distance of about three-quarters of a mile, to this 
same swamp, which was once included in Jedediah iforton's 
farm and was called "Old Fly." 

A map of Berlin, dated 1867, shows on the east side of the 
track a building with the words "Etna Peat Co." On the 
west side is a "Boarding house." The Etna Peat Company was 
formed for the purpose of making the decayed sphagnum into 
bricks to be used for fuel. A factory which was put up was 
fitted with a steam engine and other expensive machinery for 
crushing and moulding the turf. A canal was cut across the 
swamp for drainage and to make a water way for an immense 
scow which carried a dredger for hauling up the sods. At 
first the bricks were dried in the open air, afterwards they were 
kiln dried. Some said the peat was not the right kind, and 
was good for nothing to burn. Whether it was that, or the 



DISPOSAL OF HIGHWAY PROPERTY 261 

cheaper transportation of coal, is not clear, but after two or 
three companies had experimented and sold out, the scheme 
was pronounced a dead failure, and it only represented a small 
fortune lost. The persons who alone profited from the venture 
were the farmers who sold the land and turned their wood lots 
into money. 

Mr. Albert Warren boui^ht the scow, and broke it uj» for 
the sake of the lumber. One long stick of yellow pine went 
into the foundation of his barn, its mate, he sold to the town 
of Berlin, and it is still in use, as a foot bridge, across the stream 
at Beckley's mill. 



The Hartford and New Haven railroad was opened to travel 
in 1839. Some years later a second track was laid. One night 
the laborers employed on this second track left, standing beside 
''Old Fly,-' a train of cars loaded with gravel, their tools 
piled on top. When the men returned to their work the next 
morning, they saw an island out in the pond that had arisen 
in their absence, while tools, gravel cars and track had dis- 
appeared — had gone down into the depths of the marsh, and 
there they remain to this day. The workmen must have needed 
an extra bracer that morning to raise their spirits. Phineas 
Case remembers that when the railroad was building, the women 
used to come over to that saloon on the corner north of his 
house with pitchers, pails and jugs to be filled with whiskey. 

The story of a second accident at the same place, as gathered 
here and there from persons who had scarcely thought of it 
for years, is as follows: On the afternoon of April 6, 1880, 
just after a heavily loaded freight train had passed the peat 
factory boarding house, ^Ir. and Mrs. Kelsey, who lived there, 
were startled by a thundering great noise. Eight rods or so 
of the railroad track with its embankment had slumped again. 

jSTight was coming on, the Boston express was nearly due, 
and another train would soon come from the south. ^Ir. Kelsey 
went to look out for the New York train. ^Irs. Kilscy ran 
into the house, lighted a lantern, took off her red fiannol petti- 



262 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

coat and started up the road toward the north waving her 
danger signals. Glory was the only reward she ever received. 

As the engine approached, she screeched at the top of her 
voice and the train was stopped its own length away from the 
yawning chasm. It is said that when the trainmen asked what 
the matter was they were told that the peat bog had gone 
toh . 

The story goes on to say that there were fonr millionaires 
among the passengers on that train — that much praise was 
given the brave woman who had saved their lives — but that no 
reward whatever was given to her. 

The next day a long procession of wagons and carriages filled 
with men, women and children might have been seen going 
through Berlin Street toward the peat swamp and half of 
Meriden was there. 

The boys collected fence rails which they threw into the 
water west of the track, the rails sank out of sight and then 
bobbed up again. The telegraph poles had settled so that only 
the tops were left. 

Supt. E. H. Davison and the directors of the road walked 
about and discussed the situation, while the crowd looked on. 
The advice of the directors was to remove the track far enough 
west to avoid the marsh, but the superintendent said he would 
make a solid bed for the road where it was first laid if it 
took the whole of Yalesville. A small boy gazed at him in awe 
as he gave his orders, like a potentate, and thought he must 
be a very great man. 

Mr. Luby says that a caisson of heavy planks, laid flat, one 
over another, was built and thousands of loads of sand were 
brought up from the banks owned by the company in Yalesville. 
As fast as the sand was dumped, water was poured on to make 
it as hard as possible. After the work was completed a man 
was kept at the place to watch the road every day for a year, 
and it will always be under careful inspection. 

A certain clever fellow, who was set to guard the embank- 
ment, had his one failing, and it came to the ears of the com- 
pany that he sometimes neglected his watch. He was severely 
reprimanded and threatened with loss of his position. He was 



DISPOSAL OF iriOirWAY PROPERTY 203 

SO scared that ho tecamo a disoiplo of Father ^[urphy, and 
was ever after a sober man. Ho woro a blue ril)boii consjjic- 
uoiisly pinned on his coat, and when he met an ohl friend and 
was asked how he was getting along, he wouhl say, "Firstrate, 
sir, I am a blue ribbon man now, sir." 

The depth of the morass at its center is unknown, ^Ir. Luby 
says he has seen a whole coil of telegraph wire unwound and 
dropped there until it settled by its own weight, without reach- 
ing a foundation. 

The story of the disaster at the Peat Swamp as given recently 
in the Berlin history, started quite a discussion among those who 
were taken by their parents to see the show. Charles Warren 
and one of his schoohnates were sure they saw one car tilting 
half over the track, and that another was down in the mud — 
that trunks, soaking full of water, were fished up from the 
depths, and that when the question was asked who was respon- 
sible for the damage the reply was ''Oh, the company will have 
to make it good." Others said "'twas no such a thing — that 
there was no car on the track when it caved in." 

To settle the controversy Miss Ruth Galpin went to the 
office of the Hartford Courant and copied from the file of 1880 
their account of the catastrophe [pronounced "cat-a-strop-he," 
by a little girl in our fifth district school]. 

Mrs. Walter Gwatkin kindly obtained from the Hartford 
Times their version of the accident. The two accounts are 
here given : 

OWL TRAIX WRECKED. 



Nine Cars in a Heap at Berlin, and Nobody Hurt— Wonderful 

Escape from a Curious Accident— The Coast all 

Clear Now. 

(From the Hartford Courant.) 

The midnight train for New York wliieh loft hero about two o'clock 

yesterday morning met with an accident only Ic^s remarkable thiui 

the escape of all the passengers from the peril that it involved. The 

track all fell out from under the train, the whole train of nine cars 



264 HISTORY OF BEELIN 

was brought to a sudden stop and its cars scattered right and left 
and yet no one on the train was hurt. It occurred just below the ice- 
house of the artificial pond below Berlin. On both sides of the 
track there is a peat bog. When the double track was laid a train 
of gravel cars was left standing there one night and the next morn- 
ing had all disappeared — been swallowed up. The down train passed 
at three o'clock. It consisted of two express cars, a passenger coach 
and three sleepers. The engine was Planet — the engineer Bradford. 
He suddenly felt a remarkable swaying as if everything had fallen 
out from under. He applied the air-brakes. The engine crossed but 
the tender was derailed. The track held together although the 
foundation was gone. The first express car landed on the up track. 
The second express car containing the messenger twice turned 
over and landed on its side in the pond. The mail car fell across 
the up track with one end in the pond. The baggage car landed on 
Up track. The three sleepers staid on the track. The passengers 
did not even wake up. Mr. Allen of this city did not know of 
any trouble until waking he saw by daylight the peat bog where 
he expected to see New York City. The up train was stopped at 
Meriden. The loss was between $2,500 and $3,000. 



(From the Hartford Times.) 
The passenger train boixnd south on N. Y. N. H. railroad that left 
this city 2.07 a. m. today met with a serious disaster when about 
two miles this side of Meriden. At the point where the accident 
occurred an artificial pond belonging to the Hartford Ice Co. lies 
on both sides of the track. For some days past the company has had 
workmen employed in drawing off the water in the pond in order 
to clean it out, as has been the custom each year since it was con- 
structed. In consequence of this drawing off the water, the roadbed, 
which at this point is in the neighborhood of thirty feet wide, was 
undermined for a distance of seventy-five or more feet. The train 
consisted of an engine and tender, a postal car, two express cars, 
the ordinary coacher and three sleepers. The number of passengers 
on the train is not definitely known. The postal car was thrown at 
right angle across the track, one end lies buried hard in the sandy 
bottom of the pond. Every car in the train also we believe was thrown 
from the tracks and the wreck is a bad one, covering as it does both 
tracks and preventing the passage of trains in both directions, and 
requiring as it will, owing to the fact that the water is on each side, 
most if not the whole of the day to clear it away. 



DISPOSAL OF HIGHWAY PROPERTY 265 

Passengers and baggage are transferred around the wreck with 
such dispatch however that the passengers from the south due here 
by the 9.44 a. m. arrived only about half hour late. It is rei»orte<l 
to be impossible to lay a temporary track around the wreck and in 
consequence the delay is greater than it would otherwise Ix?. 

Knowledge of the accident reached Hartford at about four o'clock, 
and Division Supt. Davison, Mr. Packard and other under officials 
of the road, soon had a wrecking train made up that took down a 
number of workmen to assist in cleaning away the debris. Other 
workmen also went down on the half-past six and eight o'clock 
trains and with these, sent from Meriden, formed a large force that 
is now at work in reopening travel on the line. (Later account) 

A visit to the scene of the wrecked train disclosed a wor^e situation 
than the first reports gave and it shows too in a spleiuli<l way the 
unequaled efficiency and promptitude of the work that is done in 
such cases by the men and wrecking appliances of the N. Y., N. H. 
& H. road. Superintendent Davison had gone down long before day- 
light with a wrecking car and 100 men with jackscrews, etc., from 
this city, and Vice President Reed came up from Now Haven with 
a work car, and a large force of station men with jackscrews and 
other appliances and the work that has been done is surprising even to 
those familiar with the expeditious ways of the Consolidated road 
in such cases. The distinctive feature of this case which separates 
it from all ordinary smashups, and from other cases of \\Tecks which 
can be, and are removed entirely in a couple of hours are first, the 
locality which is a spot between two sheets of water, that touch the 
road bed on either side and then give no room for working, and 
second, the way in which the wreck lay. It was all smashed up and 
lying across both tracks while one, the east track, had sunk four feet 
below the level of the other track. Two cars were deep in the mud, 
another was lying across the tracks, and all the rest were smashed 
more or less and lying in confusion in all directions. To all ordi- 
nary view it seemed at daylight as if the situation could not be 
corrected in three days. In reality it was made so the train could 
pass in five hours from the time the whole force had got fairly to 
work. The train from the south came by that spot at 1.52 p. m. on 
the west track without even stopping. The practical mechanical judg- 
ment and energy of Mr. Reed and his verj' capable lieut^^nant Supt. 
Davison were never shown to better effect. Mr. George Cutting a 
^^feriden builder after visiting the scene declared that the thunage 
must be $10,000 to the rolling stock alone. This may be a liberal 
estimate but it includes only a part of the whole damage. Both tracks 
will be clear at sundown and all restored to place. 



266 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

Recent installments of the Berlin History gave accounts 
somewhat conflicting of the railroad accident at Peat Swamp, 
said to have occurred April 6, 1880. The ]\rr. and Mrs. Kelsey 
to whom reference was made as flagging the trains, lived for 
seventeen years in the boarding house west of the pond. The 
first account was copied by the Meriden Journal, of the same 
week, and thus came to the notice of Mrs. Kelsey, who now 
lives with her second husband on Curtis Street, Meriden. Her 
version of the trouble at the swamp shows that it is not always 
safe to tell another man that his testimony is not true, because 
it does not agree with yours. He may be thinking of one story, 
and you of another, both true. Mrs. Kelsey says that on the 
night of April 6, 1880, the track settled two or three feet and 
at that time the midnight Washington Express, or "Owl train," 
was derailed. The baggage car went down the bank, and the 
postal car lay across the track, while the sleepers remained 
on the rails; all as described by the reporters. After that a 
watchman was kept there night and day. 

On the night of June 3 following, as the same express was 
due, just after a heavy freight train had passed along, suddenly, 
without warning, the embankment settled out of sight, for a 
length of about a hundred and seventy-five feet. Mr. and Mrs. 
Kelsey were aroused by the great noise and went out to see 
what had happened. They were met by the watchman, who 

said "The peat bog has gone to h ." His lantern had been 

put out, and he was so dazed that he could not relight it. 

Mrs. Kelsey ran back into the house, took her own lantern, 
caught her child's* red flannel petticoat from the clothes line, 
started up the north track, and stopped the train, its length 
away from the yawning chasm, and thus a terrible disaster 
was averted. Mr. Kelsey and the watchman went south and 
warned the New York express. 

It was at this time, June 3, that the telegraph poles sank their 
entire length into the water. No cars were thrown out of place. 
The trains stopped on either side of the breach and passengers 
walked over to make connections. 

* See pp. 261-2. There seems to be some discrepancy about the ownership 
of the petticoat. However, this is not of great importance. 



DISPOSAL OF niGlIWAY PROPEKTY 267 

Six months afterwards the railroad company sent ^Irs. Kel- 
sey a check for fifty dollars. As for the millionaires aboard the 
train, she excused them, for the reason that they knew nothing 
about her. The affair was kept as quiet as possible. 



Mr. William Beckley of Torrin^ton has coiitributc<l tlie fol- 
lowing bit of history about Peat Swamp : 

ToRRiNGTON, March 31st, 1900. 
To the Editor of The Berlin News. 

Dear Sir: I have been very much interested in the History of 
Berhn as given in the paper. 

An item about Peat Swamp tliat has not been nientione«l is this: 
that in the latter part of the eighteenth and the early part of the 
nineteenth century, there was, a short distance below where the rail- 
road crosses a swamp, a carding mill for the carding and making 
into rolls for spinning the wool and flax raised by the neighboring 
farmers. The swamp at that time was an open pond as now. What 
caused the growth of vegetable matter upon it during that compara- 
tively short period? 

Yours truly, Whxiam Becki.f.y. 



CHAPTER XV. 

Mt. Lamentation. 

The following story tells why Mount Lamentation was so 
named. It was written before the year 1833, as told to his 
children, by the Rev. Charles A. Goodrich, who for many years 
lived in the house now owned by Miss Julia Hovey: 

"When I was telling you of the mountains of Connecticut, I 
mentioned one, as belonging to the Middletown range, by the 
name of Mount Lamentation. This mountain is situated in the 
town of Berlin, to the east of the fine turnpike which leads 
from New Haven to Hartford. The view of the mountain from 
this road is beautiful, and even grand. It rises like a steep 
precipice to a considerable height, and forms a sublime con- 
trast to the rich meadows, which extend to a considerable 
distance from its base. 

The name Lamentation was given to the mountain many 
years since, from the circumstance that a gentleman was once 
lost in the thick forest which crowns its top. 

The name of this gentleman was Chester. He was one of 
the pious men who first settled the town of Wethersfield, about 
which I shall soon tell you. The event happened about nine 
years after the town was settled. 

At some distance south of Wethersfield, there was an unen- 
closed ground, since called the Mill Lot. To this ground, Mr. 
Chester went one day, for some purpose, but I cannot tell you 
what it was. It was a cloudy afternoon, and he was alone. 
Having completed his business, he set out to return. The 
country on all sides was a wilderness. Scarcely a foot-path 
led back to the settlement. He took the direction, however, 
which he supposed would lead him home, and, for a time, went 
on without anxiety. 

After walking some distance, he began to wonder that he did 
not come in sight of cultivated land. But still he was scarcely 



MOUNT LAMENTATION 2^.9 

troubled, as it occurred to him that lie mifrht have gone much 
farther into the forest than he originally intended. He there- 
fore quickened his step, expecting soon to emerge from the 
woods. 

In this, however, he found himself disappointed. The farther 
he walked, the thicker the forest trees seemed to grow. A wild 
and fearful gloom, by this time, was settling around him. Night 
came on apace, and, for the first time, the painfulness of his 
situation came over his mind. 

He had mistaken his way, and he was now convinced of it. 
He stopped, and asked himself, what ho should do ? Ho looked 
around, but he had no means of ascertaining the points of the 
compass. The sun had been obscured all day. That had now 
gone down ; and not a solitary star glittered on the traveller to 
direct his course. 

He could no longer tell the direction which he had come; 
of course he could not retrace his steps to the spot from which 
he had started. In this anxious moment, he scarcely knew 
what course to take. Having decided, however, ho pushed for- 
ward, still in hopes of reaching home before the setting in of 
full darkness should render it impossible. For a time, he 
hastened his flight by running. But the dangers thickened too 
fast around him to admit of this speed. Trees and rocks 
were scarcely visible. Against some he struck, and over others 
he fell. 

Injured as he was, he still went forward. But now he pro- 
ceeded with redoubled caution, since a single step miglit plunge 
him from some precipice into an abyss below. It added to the 
horrors of his situation, that the wolves and panthers, which 
inhabited the forest, were stealing abroad from their lurking 
places, in quest of prey. At times he could hear their yells; 
and, though at a distance, they sounded like the appalling war- 
whoop of the savage. 

Mr. Chester was a man of courage. Ho partook of that firm- 
ness and daring which characterized the first settlers. This 
was a fortunate trait in their character, since they were liable 
to encounter dangers unknowTi to older countries. ^Ir. Chester 



270 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

was also a man of piety. He believed in God, and well did he 
know that his providence could protect him; or, if in the 
gloomy recesses of the forest he must die, God could take him 
to his glory. 

Trust in God, my children (said Mr. Goodrich), is a source 
of comfort, in the saddest hour which afflicts the heart of man. 
It imparts light in darkness, and inspires with courage, in 
the midst of a thousand dangers. This pious pilgrim now fell 
upon his knees, and commended himself to an Almighty Pro- 
tector. He prayed for composure — for direction — for deliv- 
erance. He supplicated for submission to the Divine will. 

When he rose, he knew that God was there. Still his 
heart was full. Whose heart would not have been full ? He 
thought of home ; of a tender anxious wife ; of her helpless 
weeping children. He was a kind and tender husband, a fond 
and affectionate father. His thoughts gave life to all the sensi- 
bilities of his soul ; his bosom heaved with unutterable anguish, 
when he felt that he might see his family no more. 

Roused, however, by his feelings, he determined to make 
another effort to reach home that night. He now changed his 
course, and changed again, and again, and with increased cau- 
tion proceeded on his way. All effort, however, was in vain. 
No opening disclosed itself to his weary step, and no glimmering 
light fell upon his moistened eye. 

In this state he continued to wander, he scarcely knew 
whither, nor how long. At length, overcome with anxiety and 
fatigue, he sunk upon the earth, concluding to wait till day. 
At the same time, he determined not to sleep ; but had he 
determined otherwise, it would have been to no purpose, for 
sleep approached him not. 

Before the day dawned, however, he forgot his cares a few 
minutes. Protected by Providence, he awoke, but judge what 
must have been his gratitude to God, He had stopped the pre- 
ceding evening — he had laid himself down on the very verge 
of a frightful precipice. A few steps more, and he would have 
slept the sleep of death. 



MOUNT LAMENTATION 271 

The morninf?, which brinus joy to most, l)roii^lit little to 
him. A dark clone! still hunp; on the sky, and a thick mist 
obscnred almost every object aronnd him. lie knew not where 
he was, and what was still more painfnl, he knew not what 
direction to take. 

As he rose from the earth, he found his limbs stiff from 
exposnre to the damps of the night. A faintness came over 
liim for want of food. He descried some berries on a neighbor- 
ing bnsh, and drank some water from a neighboring rill. 

The day preceding he had pursued a course which he sup- 
posed to be north and east, though it was afterwards proved 
to be a direction exactly opposite. The day continued dark and 
gloomy. His exertions were now snch as he could make ; but 
they were far less vigorons than they had been the day before, 
for he was fainter from the loss of strength and courage. 

Again night approached. A deathlike sickness settled upon 
his head. The darkness and the solitude appalled his weakened 
mind. He sank upon the earth and commended himself to God 
in prayer. A kind Providence enabled him to sleep, and pro- 
tected him from the dangers which surrounded him. The 
bowlings of the wild beasts occasionally broke upon his slumbers, 
but if they approached him they were not permitted to touch 
him. 

Another morning found him still in the land of the living; 
but hope had now nearly fled. It was still dark and cloudy. 
His exhaustion of body had affected his mind, and he scarcely 
knew what he was, or whither he would go. 

He perceived, however, that he was ascending an elevated 
tract of country, which he conjectured to be the base of a 
mountain. Up this ascent he dragged his way, faintly hoping 
that from its top he might overlook the settlement ,it W.-tlu'rs- 
field. 

But the impressions of what took place that day were too 
faint ever to be distinctly recalled. He only recollected that 
he reached the top — he looked abroad — but he could discover 
nothing but a wild waste of woods, extending as far as the eye 



272 HISTORY OF BEELIN 

could reach. At the prospect, his heart sickened to its core, 
and hope took her flight. 

We will now go back, my children (said Mr. Goodrich), to 
the home of Mr. Chester. His wife had expected his return at 
an early hour of the afternoon on which he left her. It was 
unusual for him to be absent after sundown. As that time had 
arrived, she began to feel anxious that he did not make his 
appearance. 

Her solicitude increased as the evening advanced. The hour 
of family prayer came. The large family bible was brought 
out and laid in its usual place. Every moment it was expected 
he would come. But he came not. At length, after waiting 
long — after listening many a time to hear the sound of his 
approaching step — she sent her family to bed, while she 
watched still longer for his arrival. The morning at length 
dawned, but he had not arrived. 

The news of his strange absence was now spread through 
the village. ISTo one had seen him or heard of him. Several 
of the inhabitants started in search of him. They were abroad 
all day, but no trace and no tidings could they discover of him. 
It was now settled that some serious disaster had befallen him. 

I cannot stop to tell you of the cruel suspense of the family ; 
nor of the agitated state of the village, on the setting in of this 
second night. A thousand conjectures floated through different 
minds — and many ill bodings respecting him went the village 
round. 

The next day, at an early hour, preparations were made for 
a more extended search. Nearly all the men of the settlement 
were summoned, and after settling their plan, they started in 
different directions, on the intended search. They took with 
them drums and firearms, to assist in guiding his course, should 
he fortunately come within the sound of them. 

This day, however, passed away like the other. Most of the 
men came back at evening, to communicate their failure to the 
now agonized family and friends. A small party, however, 
had wandered so far to the south during the day, that they 
concluded to encamp out for the night. 



MOUNT LAMENTATION 273 

The following day, this party renewed tlieir search. They 
continued to pursue a southerly course. Occasionally they fired 
their guns; they halloed; they called his name ; they sounded 
their drum. 

At length, the sound of the drum broke upon the bewildered 
man's ear. He stopped; he listened. He went on. Again he 
paused. His brain was confused. His mind was disordered. 
Still he had sufficient understanding left to think; and a 
thought now glanced over his mind, that his friends might be 
in search for him, and he dragged himself towards the comintr 
sounds. 

He thought these sounds increased. He was sure they did. 
He heard his name sounded at a distance. The sound came 
through the forest like the voice of mercy. He could no longer 
advance. He stood like a marble monument. A few minutes 
brought the party within his view. They also saw him. A thrill 
of joy he felt play round his heart, and, as they approached to 
welcome him to their bosom, his mind seemed to recover its 
tone. Tears of joy burst from his eyes; and an exclamation 
of gratitude ascended from his lips to the great Author of his 
deliverance. 

The joy of his neighbors was scarcely exceeded by his own. 
They conducted him home, a distance of thirteen miles, which 
he had wandered. The place where he was found was this 
mountain in Berlin ; and well afterwards was it called Mount 
Lamentation. 

I cannot describe to you, my children (said Mr. Goodricli), 
the joy which thrilled through the hearts of his family — which 
spread through the village, as the party made their appearance, 
with the object of their toilsome search. I dare say the story 
was long remembered by both old and young, and was improved 
by the pious pilgrims, in a religious way. It would load them 
to reflect upon the lost and wandering state of mankind, in 
respect to their creator. Let us (said ^Ir. Goodrich) improve it 
in a similar manner. We are lost, my children ; we are wan- 
dering, in a darker, and still more dreary wilderness. But 
there is One, who is appointed 'to seek and save the lost.' 
18 



274 HISTORY OF BEELIN 

Happy will it be for us, if we be found of Him, and are restored 
to the family in Heaven above, who will welcome our restora- 
tion with songs of joy, such as angels sing." 

In the ancient burying ground at Wethersfield may be seen 
a table monument which bears the following inscription: 

Here lyes the body of Leonard Chester Armiger late of the town 
of Blaby and several other Lordships in Leicestershire, deceased in 
Wethersfield Anno Domini 1648 oetatis 39. 

Strange figures, rudely cut on the stone, doubtless an armoral 
device, have been supposed by some to represent the hobgoblins 
that appeared to Mr. Chester when lost in the forest of Mt. 
Lamentation. 

According to Historian Stiles, Mr. Chester built a grist mill 
at Wethersfield in 1637, and tradition says that he was in 
search of a suitable site for this mill when he lost his bearings, 
and wandered for three days, while his anxious neighbors, 
armed with drums, muskets, tin pans, tin pails and brass 
kettles, with anything and everything that could make a noise, 
searched for him.* 



Some fine morning, should you join one of the processions of 
college boys who come to Berlin village by trolley, and head for 
the south, they will lead you on a tramp of three miles down 
past the old tollgate site and a little farther on the turnpike, 

* A part of this chapter, dealing with the origin of the name of Mount 
Lamentation, called forth a criticism by Chas. H. Hollister, now deceased. 
In a letter to the Berlin A'eios, dated March 7th, 1906, he writes: "The 
article [by the Rev. Charles A. Goodrich] makes Mr. Chester out to be 
'a derned fool.' In coming from Wethersfield to Mount Lamentation, he 
had to cross the creek at Rocky Hill, and again before he reached Mount 
Lamentation he would have to cross the Mattabessett River. In that early 
time he must have had to swim or wade, and being a thorough woodsman, 
why did he not follow the creek or river until he reached the Connecticut 
and then back to Wethersfield?" 

No doubt it was Miss North's intention to let the reader determine the 
historical value of Mr. Goodrich's tale, and reproduced it as such. 



MOUNT LAMENTATION 275 

beyond the point where Old Colony Road branches off toward 
West Meriden, until in the distance appear three small houses, 
on the west side of the road. When within about sixty rods 
of the first house you will turn into a field and go eastward 
until you reach a projecting cliff at the base of ^Mount 
Lamentation. 

This is the goal. 

In the spring of 1887 Mr. William M. Davis of Harvard, 
who in 1877 began a careful geological survey of Connecticut, 
discovered at this place a very curious formation, which was 
pronounced to be of true volcanic origin. 

At first it was called ''Connecticut's Extinct Volcano," but 
Professor Davis submitted, as more appropriate, the name 
"Ash bed," which was adopted, and the locality is now known 
in the geological world as "The Meriden Ash Bed." 

The deposit which, in general, is of a greenish gray color, 
shows a depth of about thirty feet. It consists of pitchstone, 
vitrified sand, angular fragments of trap and other materials, 
with bombs of dense trap, wrapped in rings of glass, rounded 
and flattened, interspersed at irregular inten'als, all cemented 
together and technically called breccia. 

What remains of the bed extends for an unknown distance 
under Lamentation, and thus has been protected. If, as is 
supposed, the original deposit covered an area of several square 
miles, it was long since worn away by erosion. 

Lands composed of disintegrated trap are remarkable for 
fertility. 

The theory at first advanced, after the discovery of the bed, 
was that the ashes and bombs were thrown there from above, 
from a central crater some distance away, spoken of, by a writer 
in the Connecticut Magazine for January, 190;"), as a "mammoth 
volcano, a magnificent belcher, with tremendous force unck-r- 
neath, whose mouth vomited fire, ashes and melted rock." As 
one remarked, "When the eruption was going on, there must 
have been a great scurrying of the old reptiles, whose tracks 
were found on the sandstone beds at various points in the 
valley." 



276 



HISTORY OF BEELIN 



Diligent and repeated search failed to reveal the exact locality 
of the possible grand central crater. If lost, it may be under 
the mountain. 

The suggestion of a scientist from a neighboring town that 
it might be in the peat swamp, was scouted by other wise men. 

The crater, if ever found, will be as a pipe or neck of lava, 
not as a cone. When it was announced that an extinct volcano 
had been discovered at Mount Lamentation, great interest was 
excited among geologists, and the "ash bed" was visited by 
hundreds of persons from Meriden, 'New Britain, and Middle- 
town, by classes from the colleges and schools, with their 
teachers, until a well-worn path was trodden from the road 
to the bluff. The Meriden Scientific Association, not content 
with a surface view, laid the rock open in places by the use 
of dynamite. 

Ten years later Professor Davis wrote : "I have taken parties 
there every summer since then and I hope to do my share 
toward beating down that path for many years to come. 

For several seasons this district was taken as one of the 
training grounds in field study, for the Harvard Summer 
School of Geology. Harvard, Yale, and Wesleyan students, 
with their professors, once united on an excursion to this 
locality. They left their trains at Meriden and walked along 
the turnpike to Lamentation, which they explored to the point 
where it terminates, over near East Berlin. There, Spruce 
Brook cuts a trench, and shows how the trap rock passes to the 
covering of sandstone. At the end of the day the company took 
trains for their homes from East Berlin station. 

The truth must now be told, though it should conflict with 
the most interesting details of this description, even though 
it may destroy the picture in our imagination of fire balls 
shooting from "Old Fly" across the heavens to Lamentation. 
Scientists have, with reason, modified their views as to the 
origin of the breccia bed. Still it remains a fact that once on 
a time there were great "goings on" in this region. We are 
told that an arm of the sea came up from the south into Berlin, 



MOUNT LAMENTATION 277 

that rivers ran swiftly from an elevation of from 150 to 200 
feet above sea level, and that a lake covered all of Middletown, 
Cromwell, and Berlin. 

Some years since, when a well was dug on the Risley place, 
now owned by Mr. Roby, a bed of shells was unearthed. 

Where there are rivers, or lakes, there will be sand and mud, 
and so here, layer after layer of sandstone was formed under 
water. 

While the earth was cooling off outside, and the heat under- 
neath was still sufficient to melt all known substances, there 
came a tremendous explosion of imprisoned steam, from the 
underground reservoir. At the same time a stream of molten 
trap was cast up through the sandstone. As the fluid rock 
spread, like a vast sheet, over the cold, wet surface, the lower 
part formed a thin, solid, glassy layer. Before the upper part 
had time to cool, another explosion of steam, with more melted 
rock, followed, which shattered the hardened layer of trap into 
fragments and forced them throughout the red hot mass alx)ve 
where they remained without melting again. 

The whole sheet of trap was afterwards lifted, tilted to the 
east, and broken apart, so that what now appears as the face, 
is the broken edge, and this is the latest theory of the forma- 
tion of the "Meriden Ash Bed." It all happened ages ago — 
millions of years we are told, but its history written so plainly, 
by the hand of the Almighty, on this cliff lies an open page, 
so that, not ''he who runs," but he who studies may read. 

We must not linger too long at the "ash bed." Blount 
Lamentation is a great sheet of trap and there are other inter- 
esting localities. On our way back to the trolley we shall wish 
to visit a mud volcano about half a mile farther nortli high 
up on the mountain, over in Berlin. 

The '"ash bed" is not in the least like a bank of coal ashes, 
and neither has the "mud volcano" the look of a mud hole. 
Professor B. K. Emerson of Amherst describes it thus : 

"The place is on the same trap ridge and may be found by 
going north from the last locality along the Berlin turnpike to 
the point where a road comes in from the southwest 



278 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

Opposite this road a wood road runs east to the ridge, and 
going a few rods north one comes to a fine point of view of the 
lake to the west, where beacon fires have been built. Directly 
beneath in the bluff is a rock shelter, and the southern wall 
of this is the south wall of the throat to be described. The 
explosive force of the steam at the base of the trap sheet has 
formed the same brecciated agglomerate as before, but has here 
forced its way through the whole thickness of the trap sheet in 
a throat three rods wide and flowed out on the surface as a 
submarine mud volcano . . . The walls of the throat are 
clearly exposed. At the lowest point visible the trap is rudely 
columnar and compact. . . . This is plainly the undisturbed 
surface of a normal lava flow. 

The mass that rises in the throat and spreads over the lava 
sheet has all the peculiarities of the breccia farther south. 

It contains the rounded, bomb-like trap blocks, isolated blocks 
of indurated white sandstone containing blebs of pitchstone 
and rounded by abrasion, blocks of scoriaceous red sandstone, 
also containing pitchstone and fragments of jet black, fine- 
grained basal trap, often full of the long steam tubes which are 
usually found at the bottom of the trap, together with various 
other trap varieties. The whole is cemented by glass. . . . 

It rises over the lips of the throat and flows southward. . . . 
The breccia can be followed north about thirty rods. I traced 
it south about forty rods. It is doubtless continuous with the 
two thin layers of tuff in the sandstone above the trap east of 
the ash bed." 

"Altogether a very instructive locality," say the scientists, 
and classes under their direction, obtain, from one day's visit 
at Mount Lamentation, a clearer idea of conditions, far back, 
when the mighty forces of flood, fire and steam were at work 
giving shape to the earth's crust, than from many months' study 
of books. 

Professor William North Rice of Wesleyan University is 
about to publish a work descriptive of the rocks and cliffs of 
this region, and those who wish to know more of the subject may 
do well to consult that publication. 



MOUNT LAMENTATIOX 279 

On Mount Lamentation is a famous soft rock, its length of 
about forty feet covered from end to end with inscriptions — • 
carved with jackknives — names of generation after pjeneration 
of Berlin boys and girls who thus immortalized themselves. 

The outside of the rock seems to have hardened in recent 
years, but the inside is still quite soft. The Ix'st way to 
approach it is to take the mountain road at the Jarvis fann, and 
follow the path southerly about a mile. 

The rock is on the very top of the ridge, about half-way 
between the E. C. Hall house and the old Abram Wright place 
and can be seen from the turnpike. 

One day two village lads, Charley Sage and Charley Warren, 
went up to cut their names on the rock. Charley Sago's father 
was a stonecutter; to save his jackknife and make a better job 
he carried along his father's mallet and chisel. When the chisel 
broke, he looked at it sadly and remarked, "I don't know what 
my father will say to me now." 

On the southern slope of the mountain, back of Martin 
Dunham's, a stone marks the point where three counties meet, 
Middletown, New Haven, and Hartford. 

Saturday, November 3, 1906, fifty-eight professors of geology 
and their pupils from Wellesley, Holyoke, and Smith colleges 
(ladies first), and from Harvard, Yale, and Wesleyan univer- 
sities, came down at Spruce Brook, from the mountain, which 
they had followed all the way up from Meriden. They called 
on the Benson family, and one of its members carried some 
of the company over to the Berlin station. The work of the 
day had been quite satisfactory to the geologists, and many 
new places were discovered which showed volcanic action. 

The most envied of the party, however, was the one who found 
a topaz, as large as a silver quarter. This souvenir is to be 
cut, to bring out its luster. The topaz is a valued gem, found 
usually in primitive rocks. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

The South District: The Boherts Farm; David Sage, Alfred 
Ward, and Their Children; the Stantack Boad. 

The course of our history will now lead eastward from 
Bishop's corner in the South district. The statement, in an 
early chapter, that "The Bishop house was long since torn 
down and the new schoolhouse now stands on the place," called 
forth a response by letter, from Charles H. Aspinwall, in which 
he says : 

The new school house in the South district stands several hundred 
feet north of the site of the old Bishop house. 

The old black heart cherry tree nearest the road which runs east 
and west, stood in the angle formed by the main part of the house 
and the ell. The well was located in this ell part. 

I can just remember Samuel Bishop, Sr's daughter, Betsey, who 
lived in the house alone for a time. She was a kindly, gentle, old 
lady who must have loved children, for my impression of her is very 
pleasant. After a time she moved away, and the old house was 
occupied by several tenants until it gradually became uninhabitable. 
I remember roaming through this empty house many times when a 
boy. It was a low, rambling old place, with many small rooms, nearly 
all on the ground floor. 

Betsey Bishop spent her last years in Springfield, where she 
owned half of a pretty house. A favorite nephew owned the 
other half, and she lived happily until after his death. She 
left a sum of money for the care of her family burying lot, at 
Maple Cemetery, in Berlin, where she desired to be laid beside 
her father and mother, but her wish was not regarded. 

Miss Bishop's mother, Elizabeth [Galpin], born about 1767, 
was the daughter of Benjamin Galpin, who kept the old tavern 
at Boston Corners. Elizabeth Galpin's sister, Roxy, was the 
second wife of Selah Savage, and the mother of Mrs. Franklin 
Roys. The two sisters used to sing songs that they learned 
from the dancing parties at the tavern. 



THE SOUTH DISTRICT 281 

The large elm tree on the north bank in front of the Loveland 
house, now occupied by the Roys sisters, was set out in 1784 
by Samuel Bishop. He told Mr. Galpin that, when ho was nine- 
teen, he went over on the ledge, dug up that tree, and brought 
it over to the village on his back. At the same time he planted, 
on the south front bank, a buttonball, which grew to an immense 
size. It was a target for lightning once too many times, and 
shortly before 1870, it was split so that a large limb fell over 
against the house, and for safety the old giant was cut down. 

Samuel Bishop died September 27, 1856, aged ninoty-one 
years. His wife died December 25, 1840, at the ago of 
seventy-three. 

Since Erastus North's day, women have complained that tliey 
could not find anyone to put scions into their fruit trees. ^Irs. 
Bishop grafted her trees successfully with her own hands. 

Over the hills, easterly and southerly, around Bishop's curve, 
at the head of the road, as it runs east and west, may be seen 
the house of Martin Dunham, built about 1850, by his brother, 
Solomon Dunham. The farm next east was long ovmed by the 
Roberts family. John Roberts died in 1837, aged ninety-two 
years. His wife, Sarah (Merrills), died in 1830, aged eighty- 
two years. They were members of the Worthington Congrega- 
tional church previous to 1812. 

There were twelve children in this family, whose names were : 
Sarah, Electa, Eleazer, Samuel, Harry, William, Mary, ^laria, 
John, Emeline, Lucetta, and Julia. Besides the large house, 
now standing, there was a smaller house farther east, which 
was occupied by the son John, father of Walter Roberts of New 
Britain. 

John Roberts and his father were blacksmiths. Their shop 
was on the north side of the way easterly from the dwellings. 

This story is told of John. He made a pair of tongs and 
set the rivet so tightly that he could not open them. .Men 
in those days wore cloaks, and Roberts, with his tongs hi(hh'u 
under his cloak, came up to Lotan Beckley, the vilhige bhick- 
smith. After standing around awhile he remarked, casually, 
that he knew a man who made a pair of tongs and he couldn't 
19 



282 HISTORY OF BEKLIN 

open them when finished. "Why didn't you tell the d fool 

to heat 'em again," said Mr. Beckley. Roberts returned to 
his shop, put his tongs into the fire and opened them easily. 

The Roberts farm was purchased in 1844 by S. C. Twitchell. 
It is now owned by C. M. Jarvis, who is showing what can be 
done with an abandoned New England farm. 

Next east of the Roberts blacksmith shop was an old house, 
known as the King place. Benjamin King was here in 1802. 
Widow King was the last wife of Seth Savage, Sr. 

The King house was occupied by tenants until shortly after 
1850, when it was torn down. There were two front rooms 
and a large kitchen at the rear. William Luby says that when 
he was eight years old his father rented that house. His mother 
was dead; there were four Luby children; and an aunt, who 
came to keep house for them, brought her four children, so 
that they had lively times. 

There was no floor or ceiling over the kitchen and the chil- 
dren used to jump from the front chambers down onto the 
kitchen floor. One day, when left alone, they threw a bed 
down and jumped onto that, and they ''caught it" when the 
old folks came home. 

The farm house next east of the King place, now (in 1906) 
the home of the Benson family, was formerly owned by Albert 
"Hulbert," so spelled in 1824. Robert Hurlbert of this town 
was a son, by adoption, of Mr. and Mrs. Hulbert. They had 
no children of their own. 

The road known as "Old Stantack," two miles in length, 
which starts opposite the Hulbert house, is sometimes followed 
by boys of an exploring turn of mind to its tennination, on the 
Middletown and Meriden road, near Bradley and Hubbard's 
reservoir. 

Spruce Brook starts in Middletown, a mile or so south of the 
Berlin town line, and, as it runs northward, crosses Stantack, 
a short distance south of the Hulbert house. At that point a 
dam was laid and a sawmill was built. In 1798, Roswell Wood- 
ruff leased, for seventy years, to Elisha Savage, that water 



THE SOUTH DISTRICT 283 

privilege, with his mill and mill liouso thereon, described as 
being east of the dwelling house of said Woodruff. From this 
statement it would appear that Roswell Woodruff lived on the 
west side of Stantack road, but no one now living can tell us 
anything about the Woodruffs. 

At the expiration of the seventy years lease not much 
remained of the property to revert to Woodruff heirs. A scat- 
tered pile of stones, a shaft and a broken water wheel now lie 
across the stream to mark the site of the old mill. 

Elisha Savage was the grandfather of Mrs. Hoys and she 
remembered that when a child she was often sent from her 
home on Savage hill with hot dinners for the men who worked 
at the mill all day. 

In 1805, John Roberts, Jr., claimed Stantack road as his 
private property, and petitioned the town for permission to 
enclose the land. 

Fifty years ago, the bank east of the Savage sawmill was 
covered with elegant mountain laurel, and not far away grew 
the pretty, though noxious, lambkill. The same young girl 
who exclaimed over the laurel blooms, discovered a bed of 
luscious wild strawberries extending up the mountain slope. 
Her liking for strawberries overcame her fear of snakes until 
a monstrous reptile leaped from the bushes and thrashed along 
her pathway. 

Ask the Benson boys to tell of their experience with rattle- 
snakes, red adders, and black snakes. A rattler of unusual size 
was caught alive in their yard a year ago. 

Deacon JSTorth, whose boyhood days were spent in these fields, 

, used to tell this story : ''A great black snake found by the boys 

was cut apart, and, by actual count, forty-two little snakes ran 

out of the body of the old one and around in again, at its 

mouth." 

Reference has been made to the Stantack Road. According 
to a report found on page 403, vol. 22, of :Middletown Land 
Records, that road was laid out December 12, 1780, by a com- 
mittee appointed for the task by the town of ^Middlctown. As 



284 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

surveyed it was four rods wide, and was bounded on either side 
by stubs of trees; a "Black Oak Staddle" here, a "bunch of 
Maples," or a "Walnut Staddle" there, and so on throughout 
its length. 



On the north side of the way, next east of the Albert Hulbert 
farm, may be seen an ancient house known to the last two gen- 
erations as the "Ward place." The Sages once owned land 
all the way from Connecticut river over to Berlin Street, and 
this Ward place seems to have been the home of David Sage, 
Jr., great-grandson of David Sage, the Welch emigrant who 
came to Middletown in 1652. 

David Sage and Lois Harris, his wife, had fourteen children, 
seven sons and seven daughters, bom between the years 1754 
and 1775. Their names were: Abraham, David, Harris, David 
and Jonathan (twins), Seth, David, Lois, Ann, Mehitable, Ann, 
Bathsheba, Ruth, and Lois. 

The father, David, died in 1779. On the stone at his gTave 
in Maple Cemetery, we read this inscription : 

Under this stone doth lie the Body of Mr. David Sage, jun'r. 
Killed instantly by a fall from a horse on the 25th of Febry A. D. 
1779. In the 47th Year of his Age — 

And all those little children ! What wonder that three years 
later Lois, their mother, gave up the ghost, and died, as she 
did, at the age of forty-eight years. 

The children held onto their home until 1795, when, as 
shown by a deed dated June 10, of that year, Abraham Sage, 
the eldest son, conveyed to Simeon North, his right in the house 
and barn, with the five-acre home lot bounded east on Spruce 
Brook, and one-ninth of the sawmill. This deed included thir- 
teen acres of land besides the house lot. 

By another deed, of date August 29, 1798, Lois Sage, the 
youngest child, and Bathsheba Bulkeley, her sister, sold for £24 
to said North, one-third of the dwelling house and bam, "being 
the same distributed to Lois and Bathsheba from their father's 
estate," and "now occupied by sd. North." Then on May 6, 



THE SOUTH DISTRICT 285 

1799, their brother David sold to North his share of the house, 
being one-sixth part thereof and eight acres of land. 

Mr. Xorth seems to have bought out the Sago heirs for the 
sake of the land. He sold the part of their house and barn that 
he had from Abraham, in 1795, to David Woodruff, the next 
year, for £195, but ho kept the land, all except the five acres that 
have always gone with the house lot. 

David Woodruff deeded the place to Shubael Pattison Novem- 
ber 19, 1812, described by Woodruff as the place whore I now 
live. With house, barn, shop and twenty acres of land, this 
time, the price paid was $1,130. This is the first mention found 
of a shop there. 

Elisha Cheney came into possession of the property and sold 
it, November 4, 1822, to his son Olcott for $850, reserving to 
S. North his mill right. 

Olcott Cheney sold April 10, 1824, for $1,000, to Ebenezer 
Post. 

There were five Post children: Eliza, Harriet, Solomon, 
Ealph, and Ebenezer. Mr. Post died, and his widow, Laura 
Post, sold to Alfred Ward, September 9, 1837, for $333, 
encumbered by her dower rights. 

Mrs. Post became the third wife of Horace Steele, whose 
house was on the site now occupied by Walter Gwatkins. She 
had there in the front yard a famous garden filled with old- 
fashioned flowers, and herbs, and vegetables of every sort. She 
delighted to cut nosegays for the school children. "Scarlet 
London pride," yellow lilies, sweetwilliams, columbine, "spider 
wort," "none so pretty," valerian and violets, with striped 
grass for green— what if they were not arranged artisti- 
cally, as to color and shape, the giver is remembered to this 
day for her gay, sweet flowers. Another plant, popularly called 
"yellow myrtle," which Mrs. Steele cultivated, was considered 
quite choice by the women of her day. They would break off 
slips to give to their friends, with the assurance that they would 
"live," and they still live. 

Between the Hulberts and the Wards there was a piece of 
land thickly wooded, with much undergrowth. After :Mrs. Post 
married again and came up to the village to live, she used to 



286 HISTORY OF BEELIN 

go back to her old home and go all over those woods. She knew 
where every flower and plant grew. 

Alfred Ward was a blacksmith who understood his business 
well. The shop, where he shod horses and cattle driven from 
far and near, stood near the street west of his house. There was 
never a saloon or store in this part of the town, and when their 
day's work was done, the men of the neighborhood used to 
gather at the blacksmith shop to discuss politics and town affairs, 
and to exchange bits of gossip. 

Alfred Ward and Maria Van Orden, his wife, had ten chil- 
dren. Walter died in 1851, aged ten years. It is said of him 
that "he was a good boy." Leverett, Martha, Mary, Olive, 
Plumah, Elizabeth (twins), and Ellen lived to maturity. 

In the lot west of the Savage sawmill, near where Roswell 
Woodruff's house must have stood, is a never-failing spring of 
fine water. Leverett Ward thought it would lighten the labor 
of his mother if the water from that spring could be conducted 
to her kitchen. He obtained permission to take the water, and 
dug a trench for a pipe, below frost line across two roads, and 
down the hill into the house. Now, for nearly forty years that 
water has been drawn from a faucet over the sink in the Ward 
house. Once, however, there was trouble, when a gang of 
Italians, sent to cut wood on the mountain, came down and 
washed their soiled clothing in the spring. 

Mr. Ward died June 4, 1880, aged seventy-seven years. His 
wife died N'ovember 29, 1896, aged ninety-two years and four 
months. 

Mrs. Plumah Skinner, now the only survivor of the ten 
children, mother of Elmore Skinner, superintendent of the Ber- 
lin Town Farm, came to the homestead to care for her mother 
in her last days. She repaired the house so that it is good for 
another century. A grand old maple tree, in the front yard, 
whose heart had furnished a home for many generations of 
squirrels, was blown over a few years since. In its fall some 
of the branches struck against the house and caused consider- 
able damage. When water was carried to the house from the 



THE SOUTH DISTRICT 287 

spring above, a branch pipe supplied a fountain in tlio shape 
of a goose, under the maple tree. 

Mrs. Skinner moved the blacksmith shop aruund to the rear 
of the house and used it for a summer kit<?hen. 

Mrs. Ward cut a fine, new, white, front tooth, ono of a third 
set, late in life. Even then she was not so fortunato as the old 
lady who said she had two teeth left and she thanked the Lord 
they were opposite. The Ward place is now owned and 
occupied by C. J. Thompson. 



CHAPTER XVIL 

Benjamin Cheney, Pioneer Cloch Manufacturer. 

At the Jamestown Exposition of 1907 was seen a clock 
loaned bj Mrs. Frank Cheney, Jr., of Manchester. This clock, 
supposed to be the oldest in the state, was made by Benjamin 
Cheney, Jr., born in East Hartford, September 8, 1725. 

The Cheneys lived in the eastern part of East Hartford, set 
off in 1823 under the name of Manchester. Timothy Cheney, 
born 1731, brother of Benjamin, and a clockmaker also, was 
the ancestor of the Manchester Cheneys, of silk manufacturing 
fame. 

There was another brother, Silas, whose granddaughter, Mary 
Youngs, was fitted for a teacher. It is said that when on her 
way to take a school in N^orth Carolina, she met, in l^ew York, 
Horace Greeley, who afterward went south and secured her as 
his bride. 

Benjamin Cheney and his wife, Deborah (Olcott), came to 
Berlin and spent their declining years with their son Elisha, 
who was baptized in East Hartford (Manchester), January 
11, 1770. On a single stone in the graveyard east of the Jarvis 
farm are these inscriptions : 

Benjamin Cheney, Died May 15th 1815 M 90. 

Deborah wife of Benjamin Cheney Died Nov. 3d, 1817 M 80.* 

Another stone bears this inscription : 

Allen Son of Benjamin Cheney d. in New York Mar. 17, 1815 
aged 40. 

Word of the death of Allen Cheney was sent to the family 
and Elisha went down to Kew York only to find that his brother 
had been buried. His trunk had been broken open and rifled 
of its contents ; his gold watch was gone and his money also. 

The ancestry of this branch of the family is traced back, 
through Elisha, Benjamin, Benjamin, Peter, Peter, to John of 

* See Chapter II, page 30. 



BENJAMIN CHENEY 289 

N"ewbury, Mass. It seems that before John decided to make 
a permanent home in ISTewbury ho was for a time a parishioner 
of the Eev. John Eliot, who made the followin/^ entry on his 
church record: 

John Cheny he came into the Land in the yeare 1635, he brought 
4 children, Mary, Martha, John, Daniel, Sarah nt child was borne 
in the last month of the same year 1635, cald February, ho removcfl 
from or church to Newbury the end of the next sucr 1636, Martha 
Cheney the wife of John Cheny. 

Now, there was another Cheney family in ]\rr. Eliot's 
church — that of William Cheney, It is not known exactly how 
he was related to John. In his will, drawn jnst before his death 
in 1667, at the age of sixty-four years, he provides with tender 
forethought for the comfort of his "deare & afflicted wife ^lar- 
garet." Six years later this curious record was placed on the 
Roxbury church book : 

1673, 24, 3 m. Margaret Cheany widow having been long bound 
by Satan under a melancholick distemper, (above 10 or 11 yeares) 
wch made her wholy neglect her calling and live mopishly, this day 
gave thanks to God for loosing her chain, & confessing & bewailing 
her sinful yielding to temptation. 

And so Margaret had recovered from a long attack of ner\'ous 
prostration. 

Elisha Cheney probably came to Berlin as early as 1703, 
when he was married to Olive, sister of Simeon North, daugh- 
ter of Jedediah and Sarah (Wilcox) North. They lived for a 
time on Berlin Street in the house known as Fuller's tavern, 
now owned by the Atwater family. 

In 1804, when Emma Hart had her first school in the Brande- 
gee Mulberry grove, she made her homo in stormy weather with 
the Cheneys. Children were set at work early in those days 
and it fell to the lot of ten-year-old Clarissa to clear up Miss 
Hart's room. 

Elisha Cheney bought the old brick schoolhouse on thr Jarvis 
corner and it is supposed that he made clocks there. At first 
all the cogs were whittled out with a pen knitV. TIk^ hand 



290 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

carvings on those early clocks are beautiful. In 1801 Mr. 
Cheney bought, for the sake of the water power, a tract of land 
on Spruce Brook, north of the pistol factory and there in a little 
shop he turned pinions and wheels by machinery. Long after- 
wards children at play along the stream used to find those little 
clock wheels. 

By deed of date March 21, 1811, Eeuben Woodruff con- 
veyed to Elisha Cheney eleven acres of land "bounded Korth 
partly on highway — East on highway. South on land of Hosea 
Goodrich, West on land of Simeon North, containing all the 
land I bought of John Roberts, 2d, with Dwelling & Barn 
thereon standing." 

This will be recognized from the description, as the property 
at the top of the hill, south of Bowers Corners. The house, 
painted red, was of one story and additions were built on it as 
the family increased in size, until it had more corners than any 
other house in town. The shop stood opposite the house on 
the southeast corner, which was then in the town of Middle- 
town so that the clocks made there have on the label "Middle- 
tovsoi." 

Besides clocks, Mr. Cheney made by hand, screws for the 
N"orth pistols, and gunlocks. Benjamin Cheney busied himself 
in the shop until he became enfeebled in body and mind. 
Toward the last he had to use two canes. He would start up 
from his chair and say "This will not do, I must not idle my 
time away here." With his staves he would manage to go out of 
the door and take a few steps across the yard toward the shop, 
when down he would fall, helpless, onto the ground, where he 
had to lie until helped up and back into the house. It was 
considered a necessity of life in his day for old people to take 
a certain amount of stimulant every day, and Elisha used to 
mix and give to his father each morning the proper quantity. 
A few minutes later Benjamin would call out "Elisha, where's 
Elisha ? He's forgotten to give me my toddy." 

The wife, Deborah, was extravagantly fond of tea so that 
she kept her teapot on the hearth all day long. The family 
thought it not good for her nerves to take so much strong tea 



BENJAMIN CHENEY 291 

and her supply was limited. Then slio inado a drink cf horhs 
until the end of the week, when slie put hor entire allowance 
of gunpowder into the teapot and brewed a cup quite to her taste. 

The children of Elisha and Olive (North) Cheney were: 
Clarissa, born February 5, 1794; Olcott, born May 27, 1795; 
Polly, born December 11, 1796; Harriet, bom December 23, 
1798; Orry, born February 5, 1804; Olive, born February 
5, 1804, and Benjamin, bom August 11, 1808. 

Clarissa was married February 19, 1818, to Deacon Josei)h 
Savage. Their children were: Harriet Xewell, wife of Xoah 
C. Smith, Eliott, and Joseph. Mrs. Savage, her life filled with 
kind, useful deeds, died November 25, 1874, aged eighty-one 
years. 

Olcott, who worked with his father, leased the business in 
1826. He finally bought it out and carried it on for a number 
of years in his own name, which appears in all the clocks of 
later make, on the label which reads thus : 

Improved Clock. Made and Sold by Olcott Cheney, Middletown. 
Warranted if well used. 

These clocks were excellent timekeepers, and in families 
where they have been "well used," they are in good running 
order to-day. 

Olcott Cheney lived in the house at the foot of the hill east 
of his father's, afterward known as the Barnet Doolittle place, 
now owned by Gustaf J. Lund. The Cheneys were Methodists ; 
their daughter Polly was a great singer and was very helpful as 
a leader of hymns in the meetings. She and Poxy Deming, who 
lived near by on Savage Hill, used to have fine times singing 
together, and their voices were often heard away over on ''East 
Street." Polly's hair curled naturally and fell in pretty ring- 
lets around her ears. This attracted the attention of the Elders 
in her church and she was made a subject of discipline. Polly 
was wide awake and full of fun, but she had been converted 
and wanted to be good. She said she did not care anything 
about the curls; she wore them because that was the easiest 
way to dress her hair ; she supposed she could comb it straight 



292 



HISTORY OF BERLIN^ 



back and so she put it all up in a twist, and then could sing 
her "title clear to mansions in the skies." She was married 
October 8, 1826, to Kichard Cowles of Southington, Conn., and 
Lima, N. Y. She died December 3, 1839, aged forty-three 
years. 

Harriet Cheney was married October 13, 1819, to John 
North, son of Abel and Sarah (Wilcox) iN'orth. Of their ten 
children, eight lived to maturity. Their names were: Orrin 
Lyman, Elisha Cheney (died 1844, aged twenty-two years), 
Isaac, Harriet Maria, Olive Cheney, Sarah Ann, and Elizabeth 
Jane. A daughter, Louisa, aged three years, and a son, Wil- 
liam H., aged one year, died only twelve days apart in Sep- 
tember, 1839, while the family lived in the Deacon Hosford 
place. 

Mrs. iSTorth died May 2, 1889, in the ninety-second year of 
her age. Her descendants are more numerous than those of 
any other branch of Elisha Cheney's family. 

Orry Cheney was a school teacher. A paper of date "Berlin, 
April 16th, 1822," reads as follows: 

The Inhabitants of the South East District of Worthington School 
Society are hereby respectfuly informed that Orry Cheney proposes 
to commence a school the 1st Monday in May next at the house of 
Mr. John North's in which will be taught Reading Writing Geography 
E Grammer and Needle work. Terms of Tuition for those who study 
Grammer and Geography $1.50 pr quarter, for those who attend only 
to reading and spelling 75 cents. We the Subscribers do hereby agree 
to send on the above terms the number of SchoUars affixed to our 
respective names. 

In the $1.50 column are these names: Reuben I^orth, 2; 
Jedediah Kortli, 1 ; Jemima Kelsey, 1 ; Allen Flag, 1 ; Har- 
riet Wilcox, 1. Two daughters of Levi ]^orth, Marilla and 
Julia, are in the list. 

At 75 cents per quarter, R. N^orth sends 1, Lyman Wilcox 
3 and Normand Wilcox 2. This was three years after the 
marriage of John N^orth, and his daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth 
Piper, thinks that he lived at that time in the Olcott Cheney 
house under the hill. 



BENJAMIN CHENEY 293 

Orry was married to Walter \V. Warner. They had five 
daughters and one son. Orry had a sweet, gentle disposition. 
The late Mrs. Eben Woodruff lived with hor for a while in 
Wethersfield and thought everything of her. 

Olive, twin sister of Orry and youngest of the five daugh- 
ters of Elisha Cheney, became the wife of Xorris Wilcox, uncle 
of Francis C. Wilcox, who formerly lived in the house on 
Berlin Street now occupied as a parsonage. She died at Har- 
mony, Wis., in 1895, aged ninety-one years. Olivr? was so 
much like Orry that to distinguish the sisters a ])1ik' ribl>on 
was kept tied on "Olly's" arm. 

Benjamin worked with his father and brother at clock mak- 
ing. He married first, Adelia Blinn; second, Rebecca G. 
]!Toggle. He had five sons and two daughters. 

Elisha Cheney was anxious to have his daughters brought 
up to be sober-minded women and he frowned on anything like 
levity. Clarissa said she often held her hand over her mouth 
and ran back of the house out of sight when she had to laufrh. 

Mrs. Cheney was a kind, motherly woman, who did all in 
her power to make everyone happy. She kept open house and 
her latch string was always out for the Methodist minist<?rs, 
who made their headquarters there, and were free to remain 
as long as they pleased. Visitors were impressed by the 
exquisite neatness of the housekeeping. The kitchen floor 
was scoured so white that one need not fear to eat from off it. 

About the year 1835, Mr. and Mrs. Cheney with their daugh- 
ters, except Harriet, and their families, removed to Lima, X. Y. 
After a while they decided to go on to Roscoe, 111. — all but the 
Savages. Clarissa had seen enough of pioneer life and set 
down her foot that she would return to Connecticut. This 
was a disappointment to the others. There were no schools 
where they were going and they had depended on Harriet 
Savage to teach their children. 

Letters written east from Illinois by the Cheneys toll of 
hardships on the journey, and in starting life in the new 
country, and of the deer, wolves and other wild Ix^asta that 
came around their log cabin. By day, to keep these animals 



294 HISTORY OF BERLIN 

from stalking into the house, a blanket was hung across the 
doorway. 

In the cemetery at Roscoe, 111., are these inscriptions : 

Elisha Cheney 
died July 2d, 1847, se 78 years 
Sweet is the sleep our father takes 
Till in Christ Jesus he awakes. 

Olive, wife of Elisha Cheney 
Died March 6th, 1849 

36 77. 

Olcott and Benjamin Cheney went west, also, and settled 
in Beloit, Wis., where they prospered and lived many years. 

Benjamin, while on his way to visit his mother in 1849, 
stopped over night at a house where, as he afterward learned, 
there had been a case of smallpox. He did not take it, but the 
contagion was carried to his mother, in his clothes, and she died 
of the disease. 

Clarissa, Mrs. Savage, was only fifteen months old when 
her brother Olcott was born. She was so lively that her mother, 
when busy, used to place her underneath a certain large rocking 
chair, and then she said she knew where to find her. As Mrs. 
Cheney was preparing to go west she said "Clarissy" was 
brought up under that chair and she thought she ought to have 
it for her own and it was given to her. 



